Never Close Our Eyes
by heavenhelpmyheart
Summary: Kurt is the victim of a injury that damages his brain, and remembers only up until Sectionals 2009, when he was still in love with a single Finn, and Blaine didn't exist. Blaine tries to bring back his boyfriend's memory.
1. The Accident

**A/N: Welcome to my new story. So, I have some of this written out and some of it planned out, and we'll see how things go. I know this story line is very stereotypical, and the focus of a lot of bad movies (the Vow *shudders*), but I've never seen a really good Klaine memory-loss fic, and I hope to remedy that. So, here goes. Oh, **_italics_ **are flashbacks.**

* * *

The summer of 2011 was the worst time of Blaine Anderson's life, and that's saying something. The following school year was both the second worst, and the best, time of Blaine's life. How could something be both, one might ask? Well, that involves a long story.

* * *

"I can't believe summer's almost over," Kurt said mournfully, stirring his milkshake with his spoon at one of the Glee club's summer outings. He hadn't drank any of the milkshake, of course (too many calories, no matter how many times Blaine insisted that he was beautiful).

The Glee club was sitting rather happily around the table. For all the drama that had happened in the last year, they thought the beginning of senior year (for most of them) could be legen- wait for it- dary. For once, all was mostly right in the Glee club's world. No one had heard from Quinn since school ended, and Mercedes had a non-Glee boyfriend (which, all things considered, was now plain unheard of) of whom the club didn't approve. Puck was back to his man-whore ways. Besides all that, everything was okay.

"Going back to school this year won't be terrible, Kurt. You're back at McKinley and the jocks will come to respect us once we win Nationals," Rachel said enthusiastically, her big brown eyes full of dreams as usual.

"You do realize Nationals is at the end of the year, so most of the year will still be hell, right?" Kurt asked, but he hadn't corrected Rachel. He believed it as much as she did.

'You're back at McKinley' was the part of Rachel's small tirade Blaine had focused on. Yes, he knew his wonderful boyfriend was happier at McKinley than he had been at Dalton, despite the bullying, and Blaine wanted him to be happy, but nothing would be the same. Their relationship had been wonderful during the summer, especially with the added fact they were openly in love, but how long would it last when they had to travel two hours just to see each other?

"Kurt, try to have a little optimism," Rachel chastised him, and Kurt rolled his eyes.

"I'm a realist, thank you." Kurt stood up from the table to throw away his full milkshake cup. Blaine pouted; he had totally planned to steal that from him.

It took about a minute for Blaine's entire world to turn upside down. Kurt strut across the ice cream parlor with the fierceness of any America's Next Top Model, and, yes, Blaine would admit to watching him walk away. That part of their relationship was shaky to say the least, but that didn't mean Blaine wasn't _extremely_ attracted to his boyfriend.

In Lima, it wasn't unusual for someone to shove or trip Kurt. As much as Blaine wanted to kill everyone who dared to do such a thing, it happened fairly often. So it wasn't much of a surprise when some idiot who looked about their age (and was probably a jock at McKinley, but even they didn't wear their letter jackets during the summer) stuck his foot out as Kurt walked past.

Everything felt slow motion as Blaine watched Kurt trip, his milkshake falling out of his hand, sloshing against the dirt underneath his feet and his shoes. Kurt fell forward, his head slamming onto an empty table with a sickening _thud_. He fell to the ground in the puddle of milkshake without so much as a groan. He was unconscious.

Blaine could vaguely hear Rachel emit a shriek that could crack windows as he rushed over to his boyfriend. The rest of the table was behind him, Tina and Rachel already in tears. "Kurt!" Blaine fell to his knees next to his boyfriend's limp body. "Kurt? Come on, Kurt, wake up."

Somebody said to call an ambulance. It could have been him, he had no idea. Blood pooled around Kurt's head from the cut on his forehead, making chestnut locks stick to his skin. Blaine rolled him over, trying to be as gentle as possible while knowing Kurt couldn't feel anything. His hand brushed the blood puddle as he checked Kurt's pulse. It was steady but weak. A drop of the blood fell onto Kurt's lower lip as Blaine checked his airway. He was breathing.

He could hear shouting behind him as Puck went after the jock who had tripped Kurt, Finn hot on his heels. "No, Kurt, no. You have to be okay. Wake up, Kurt, wake up." He could hear himself murmuring, but he couldn't seem to stop. A small, supportive hand fell on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off. He wasn't the one they should be worried about.

"Blaine, the ambulance will be here in two minutes." The soothing voice was, surprisingly, Santana's, and he became vaguely aware of the fact that she was kneeling next to him. "I called Kurt's dad, he's gonna meet us at the hospital." How much time had passed? When had she done that?

"He has to be okay. He can't be hurt, he can't be," Blaine muttered. His chest was too tight, his airways were locking up in shock. What would he do without Kurt?

"He's gonna be fine, Blaine. He's breathing," she said soothingly. Blaine could dimly hear sirens and the sound of Rachel sobbing. Santana pulled him away with a hand on his shoulder as the paramedics came over. A male voice was recounting the accident in an even tone as the first responders put his boyfriend on a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance.

"I have to be in there, I have to go with him, I need to be with him, I don't want him to wake up without me," Blaine mumbled, mostly to himself, as he tried to pull out of Santana's now-firm grip, which had switched to his arm.

"They won't let you," she said firmly, but not unkindly. "They're assholes. Come on, I'll drive you there." Little rocks and dirt slid out from under his shoes as Santana pulled him away, causing him to almost slip and forcing him to follow her.

"Why can't I be with him? Why can't I be happy?" Blaine whispered under his breath, trying to shake the mental image of Kurt lying in a pool of slightly-pink vanilla milkshake and blood.

* * *

The hospital in Lima was about 10 minutes away from the ice cream stand. To Blaine it felt like 10 lifetimes. He didn't cry, he couldn't cry, he was too numb, too in shock. Santana was white-knuckling the wheel as she drove him, and if Blaine had cared about anything besides Kurt in that moment, he would have been worried they were going to crash.

As it was, Santana had barely braked before Blaine stumbled out of the car, seeing the ambulance that had brought Kurt to the hospital being taken back to its garage, empty. 9413 MC was the license plate. Blaine would remember that for a long time.

"Would you pay attention?" Santana's voice demanded from behind him as Blaine stood watching the ambulance leave. At the same time he heard her voice, he heard the car that had almost hit him while it was turning honk. "Come on," she said firmly, dragging him by the arm again towards the hospital, this time not in the middle of the road.

Blaine was hit by a shock of cold air and the smell of blood, disinfectant, and sickness as the automatic hospital doors opened. Santana let go of his arm as he bolted for the front desk. "Kurt Hummel was just brought in. _Where is he_?" he demanded, not caring how frightened the young reception's slightly-too-far-apart eyes looked.

"He-he's in surgery. I-I, sir, I'm not sure exactly what..." Her wide brown eyes got even wider just before a solid hand landed on his shoulder. This one he didn't shake off. He recognized it.

"They're sewing up his head, kid. He's gonna be okay." Blaine whirled on Mr. Hummel, his chest still feeling too tight. He didn't know that. How could he know that?

"Did you already speak to the doctor?" Blaine demanded. Mr. Hummel couldn't possibly know that everything was going to be okay if he hadn't. How had they gotten there so fast? Why couldn't they _hurry_?

"No, but I saw him as they carted him in." Blaine's vision blurred a little at the idea of his beloved boyfriend being carted on a cold gurney through the sterile foyer of the hospital, blood dripping from the massive lesion on his head. Mr. Hummel grimaced. "I know it looked pretty bad, but that's not a fatal wound. I've seen a lot and I know."

"What about brain damage? You didn't hear..." Blaine's throat closed up as his mind replayed the audible _thud_ Kurt's head had made as it hit against the wooden table.

"Burt," Santana said quietly as Blaine tried to remember how to breath. _Not Kurt. Why did it have to be Kurt?_ "He hit his head off a table. Blaine's right." Santana's hand landed on the small of Blaine's back and he could suck in a breath again. "For all we know, Kurt's brain-dead." Blaine squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the image of Kurt lying in polyester pajamas in a hospital bed, hooked up to a ton of machines that were the only things keeping him alive, his boyfriend's skin barely darker than the pristine white sheets. Blaine's stomach rolled.

"I think Blaine needs to sit down," Carole said gently, the first time she had spoken and thus the first time Blaine noticed her presence. He was man-handled into the hospital chair next to Finn by Santana.

"Put your head between your knees," Santana whispered, "you look like Kermit the frog."

Blaine could dimly hear them talking as he slid to the floor in front of the chair and did just what Santana had suggested until his nausea passed. He could hear it when Carole argued that he should be treated for shock, and Santana pointing out that the only thing that would help him was a sedative or to know about Kurt and that delaying him from seeing Kurt would only make it worse (she didn't phrase it quite as nicely, but that was the general gist). Burt made the final decision that Blaine could handle himself. Then the topic changed from him to where Burt had sent the Glee club, a question which only Santana had thought to ask, and Blaine no longer cared.

Blaine closed his eyes, his head still between his knees, trying not to think of Kurt as he was in the last few... God, had it only been minutes?, but rather the other times they had spent together. Logically, it was probably a bad calming technique, but he didn't particularly care.

* * *

_"Oh my God, all your Dalton friends are crazy," Kurt declared with a giggle as he cuddled into Blaine's side. They had been lounging on Kurt's bed, watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory on Blaine's laptop, and the mention of "Nerdvana" had brought to mind the time when Kendrick had started burning all of Nick's nerd collectibles after the other boy had pulled a prank on him._

_ "Not as crazy as yours," Blaine argued for the sake of arguing, wrapping an arm around Kurt's shoulders despite how warm it was in Kurt's house. The bang and whir of hammers and saws from whatever 'utter madness' (as Kurt called it) Mr. Hummel and Finn were up to in the backyard had caused them to use headphones to watch, and Blaine liked it much better now that he could actually talk to and hear his boyfriend. Kurt, of course, had a good laugh over the fact that Blaine still had a splitter, which had apparently stopped being cool five years ago._

_ "Yes, but I love them. And you would too." Blaine pretended that wasn't pointed. Kurt had been bugging him about the idea of him transferring to McKinley. As usual, the countertenor wasn't exactly subtle (he called it being passive aggressive), but it was a big decision. He couldn't betray the Warblers. It wouldn't be any easier for him to transfer to McKinley than it would be for Kurt to transfer back to Dalton._

_ "I already do," he said in way of deflection, but since he knew Kurt wouldn't let go of the issue, he added, "I promise you I will have decided on my path for the year by the first day William McKinley High School, home of the Titans, is in session for your senior year. Okay?"_

_ "I think I can live with that," Kurt said with a smile. Kurt closed his glasz eyes as he leaned up for a kiss, and Blaine would be stupid not to oblige him. Blaine kissed Kurt gently as the sparks that went off whenever Kurt's lips touched his set a fire in his chest._

_ Kurt pulled away before it could become anything serious, resting his head on Blaine's shoulder, his eyes still closed, long eyelashes casting a series of small shadows on his cheeks. "I love you," Blaine smiled, the way he always did whenever he heard those three little words from Kurt's mouth, the ones that meant so much, the ones that made his heart thud, his breath catch, and his eyes a little wet every time he heard them, "and I promise you that's the real reason I'm pushing this. The lack of blazers is just a pleasant side effect."_

_ Blaine snorted at the not-so-sweet part of Kurt's statement. "Right." Smiling a little, he added, "You've never seen what I wear when I have total control of my outfits and my full wardrobe. You'll be appalled by my lack of fashion sense."_

_ "You're gay. How bad can it be?" Those first two words, which had sounded so cruel from so many mouths before in Blaine's life, still sounded like a sigh of relief. Kurt's infatuation with Finn, no matter how brutally it had ended, had left a permanent mark._

_ "You'll see," Blaine smirked evilly. "And I love you too, by the way." He had just realized he hadn't said it back. Of course, it was implied, as he was the first one to say the three words that could m__ake or break a relationship, but it was almost as nice to say as it was to hear. Blaine pressed a kiss to Kurt's sweet-smelling hair. "You smell nice."_

_ "I always smell nice," Kurt said, but he leaned up to kiss Blaine again. "You do realize, with Dad and Finn outside and Carole at work, we're all alone here." The implications of what Kurt had just said..._

* * *

"Kurt Hummel." The name, although in an unfamiliar voice and from an unfamiliar man, broke Blaine out of his memories, and he was the first one to stand up, rushing over to the wispy man who had called his boyfriend's name.

"Hold your horses, Hobbit," Santana said, appearing next to him, but it wasn't mean. She quickly brushed away a tear Blaine hadn't realized he'd shed.

"I'm his father," Mr. Hummel said from behind the two, putting a hand on Blaine's shoulder. Santana held his hand, her fake nails biting into his skin.

"My name is Dr. Eastlake. If you would follow me." Blaine was coming to hate this man, and the doctor said a dozen words in front of him. The man was about an inch shorter than Blaine, skinny and frail-looking. His fallow brown hair was thinning in all directions, not helping how wispy he already looked. Round glasses with thin wire rims were perched on a too-big nose, and the dull glaucous eyes behind them held no sympathy.

The doctor led them through more sterile white halls until he reached an empty doctor's office. Mr. Hummel and Carole walked hand-in-hand directly behind him, and Blaine followed, his hand still entwined with one of Santana's. Finn followed behind them; he hadn't said a word since the accident.

"Please sit," he said coldly, going to sit behind the desk, making a clear separation between him and Kurt's loved ones. "What I have to tell you is not easy, but I will not sugarcoat it. That would waste your time and mine." Blaine could punch him in the face. The hand not gripping Santana's formed into a fist. In a way, the anger was nice. It was a respite, however brief, from the numbness he had been feeling. "Your son is fine, externally. His head was sown up, with no hair removal necessary, and if that were the only issue I would release him to you tomorrow. However, that is not the case. A computed axial tomography has revealed moderate to severe swelling of the brain, especially on the temporal lobe. We will use magnetic resonance imaging to see more shortly, but it is, frankly, a gamble if Kurt will wake up at all." Carole gasped, but no one else reacted to the news. How was one supposed to react to that?

"No, Kurt, no, please." Blaine found himself muttering again, but not even Santana had noticed. Blaine wondered to whom he was pleading.

"If he wakes up, we will proceed to use magnetoencephalography or functional magnetic resonance imaging, depending on the level of functionality immediately visible, to determine the damage." The doctor had no more to say. "Feel free to stay in this room until there is more information available." This was obviously a hospital courtesy, as he sounded bored and reluctant to say it, like it was a painful formality.

"Can we see him?" Carole was the one to ask, and Santana hissed through her teeth as Blaine squeezed her hand almost to the breaking point.

"Shortly." The doctor left with no explanation.

"Did anyone understand what that meant? I know that Kurt could have brain damage, but what was all that technical..." Mr. Hummel looked at Santana and stopped himself from swearing. If it had been a normal day, someone would have reassured him this was not necessary, but it was about as far from normal as any day would ever be.

Blaine nodded affirmative (AP Anatomy & Physiology had done wonders towards helping him understand the doctor), but he took a seat next to Finn and put his head in his hands, not in the mood to explain. Everything was just as he feared. Some asshole who didn't think through the consequences of his actions had given Kurt severe brain damage, maybe even killed him. Blaine would have his head if it was the last thing he did. "Why? Why does it always have to happen to him?" Blaine felt the gazes of the three in the room with their heads still on straight when he whispered that. Apparently it had been a little louder than the rest.

Santana answered them, thankfully, so he didn't have to. "Okay, the douchebag I call my dad is a brain doctor. Let's see if I can think of what he's nagged about. The thing they did on Kurt already is a CAT scan, which showed swelling in some not-so-good places. They want to use an MRI soon. _When_ Kurt wakes up, they want to use either an MEG or fMRI to see if everything in his brain is firing properly. Right, Blaine?"

"Yes," he replied, but his voice sounded hollow, even to him. "He's going to be okay. He has to be okay," he whispered.

"Sweetie, are you sure we shouldn't get you treated for shock?" Carole asked him gently. _No, no, you can't take me away from Kurt_.

"Carole..." Santana tried to intervene. _Please, please, Kurt, I need to see him_.

"Well, Jesus, sweetie, he's _talking to himself_!" Carole turned to Blaine. "I'm sorry, honey, but that's not normal." Blaine shook his head vehemently.

"No! No, I need to see Kurt, you can't take me away from Kurt," Blaine said firmly, and he knew he was babbling, but he couldn't help himself. His one thought was to see Kurt, to know Kurt was okay.

"Carole, once we get this business with Kurt's head all sorted out, we can get Blaine to some doctors, all right?" Burt asked, mediating differing opinions as he had so many times lately.

* * *

_"Would you please tell this idiot that I have the TV in the living room reserved on Tuesday nights to watch So You Think You Can Dance?" Kurt asked Mr. Hummel in an annoyed tone, gesturing to where Finn was holding the remote and watching a basketball game (basketball was not on the list of sports Blaine particularly cared about, a sentiment Kurt approved of)._

_ "Kurt, we could just go watch it upstairs on my laptop, there's a life feed on..." Blaine trailed off at the intense glare his boyfriend gave him. "Or maybe not," he muttered under his breath._

_ "Dude, So You Think You Can Dance is lame. This is March Madness! It's important!" Finn argued as Kurt tried to grab at the remote in his hand and failed due to Finn's superior height. Kurt was leveling his step-brother with his most fearsome bitch glare and Finn didn't even appear to be fazed. Blaine had to be impressed._

_ "Absolutely _nothing_ about basketball is important! Especially not more important than So You Think You Can Dance," Kurt replied, not giving up on his pursuit of the remote. "And if you insist on lording the remote about my head, Finnegan Christopher Hudson, I will climb you like a tree!" Finn didn't react, but Blaine choked on his own salvia at a suddenly interesting mental picture and Mr. Hummel glared at him._

_ "Try me," Finn replied, not helping in the least._

_ "Boys, settle," Mr. Hummel demanded, holding out his hand for the remote and being handed it immediately. Kurt stopped trying to grab it. In Mr. Hummel's house, his word was law. "Finn, how many days a week is March Madness on?" Mr. Hummel already knew the answer to that, and Blaine had a feeling Kurt had won the argument._

_ "Almost all of them," Finn grumbled as if he had figured the same thing out._

_ "And Kurt, how many days a week is So You Think You Can Dance on?" Mr. Hummel asked._

_ "One!" Kurt announced triumphantly. "Once a week." Kurt, very maturely, stuck his tongue out at his step-brother._

_ "Finn..." Mr. Hummel said slowly._

_ "Fine, fine," Finn grumbled, and Mr. Hummel handed a victorious Kurt the remote._

_ "Mwahaha!" Kurt said, plopping on the couch and grabbing Blaine's hand to pull him down as well. "Victory is sweet," he muttered, curling into Blaine's side and changing the channel. Blaine smiled, kissing the top of Kurt's head softly..._

* * *

"Blaine?" Carole's voice asked insistently. "Blaine!"

"Yes, Mrs. Hummel?" Blaine asked once he had stopped reminiscing. It was at the same time relieving and physically painful to think about Kurt when he was lying in a hospital bed where Blaine couldn't reach him, possibly with brain damage, damage that could be... but Blaine couldn't think about that.

"Burt, I really think he needs to see a doctor," Carole insisted, holding up Blaine's arm. Blaine saw the goose bumps there and only registered then how cold the room was, shivering. "He's showing all the signs of shock: cold, nausea, clammy, irregular breathing, agitation, blue-tinged skin, dizziness, fast pulse. The only thing he hasn't done yet is pass out."

"Mrs. Hummel, please, I'm fine. I just... I need to see him," Blaine begged, and Carole sighed, searching his face with her eyes. Whatever she saw there clearly convinced her, because she let go of his arm and sat down on the opposite side of him from her son.

"How long do you think it will be until we can see him, Santana?" Burt asked, and Santana sighed, looking annoyed.

"There's no reason that we shouldn't be able to see him right now," she said, getting Blaine's attention. He had sprung out of his seat before Santana could say another word. "They might just be settling him into a room, hooking him up to IVs and junk." As if Santana's words were magic, Dr. Eastlake entered the room, followed by a scared-looking woman whom Blaine recognized as an intern from too many episodes of Emily Owens, M.D. Kurt loved that show. _Kurt_... Blaine sighed.

"Dr. Sanchez will take you to your patient." Blaine swallowed back anger again as Santana took his hand, gently prying his fingers out of the fist they had been holding for... too long. His fingers were white with blood loss, and pins and needles pricked up his arm as he regained feeling. They barely registered in Blaine's brain; he was too focused on the fact that the cold doctor couldn't even care to look up Kurt's _name_.

"He's in the critical care unit," the intern said as she walked them down the hallway, her white nursing shoes padding softly against the tile floors. Her skin was dark, with an olive tone that suggested Italian, her black hair pulled up in a tight ballerina bun, her face lined with stress, giving her the appearance of being probably ten years older than she actually was. There was at least some compassion in her eyes, at least. "We'll be taking him to diagnostic imaging soon, but we thought you might like some time with him first. The CAT scan was immediately necessary," she said, as though explaining why they hadn't seen Kurt yet made it any better. "If everything on his MRI seems okay, we may move him to the neurology department. Busy day here." As if they cared. The intern seemed nervous, which may have explained why she was chattering away. "All right. Room 130." The intern ushered Blaine, Santana, Burt, Carole, and the still-silent Finn into the private room, shutting the door behind them and not entering herself. There was nothing else she could say.

Blaine clenched his fists so tight that Santana retracted her hand at the sight before him. It was just as bad as he had imagined it. Kurt, in a pale blue polyester nightgown that he would hate if he were conscious, breathing shallowly, hooked up to an IV and a steadily-beeping heart monitor, his skin almost as pale as the white, probably-itchy sheets. Blaine was caught between wanting to run to his boyfriend and wanting to run as far away as he could.

Santana had to catch him when he took a step forward and stumbled, feeling dizzy again. There was a possibility that this was the last time he would ever see Kurt, and this wasn't how he wanted to remember him.

* * *

_ "I'm going to miss this school," Kurt said on his last day at Dalton, taking a walk around the school to reminisce, Blaine holding his hand the whole way. They had been through the dorms, stopping for Kurt to say goodbye to everyone. Now they were in the top level of the main class building, near where the Warblers usually rehearsed._

_ "You could stay," Blaine suggested as he had a hundred times when Kurt had first mentioned the idea of leaving. Not only was McKinley unsafe, but he would miss his boyfriend more than Kurt could even imagine._

_ "And you could come to McKinley, but those events seem equally unlikely," Kurt teased with a smile, knowing that if he didn't diffuse the tension this conversation would turn into a fight. It already had... three times._

_ "Fair enough," Blaine said with a sigh, pulling Kurt into the Warblers' rehearsal space and tugging him over to sit at the window seat. "I'm really going to miss you," Blaine said honestly, and Kurt sniffled, the afternoon light hitting him perfectly._

_ "We'll still see each other. You know that. McKinley is my home, Blaine," Kurt said, and Blaine could tell by his voice that he was getting choked up, so he pulled Kurt close instead of replying. Kurt clutched at his back, letting out a shaky sob. "Sorry, I'm being silly," he muttered, pulling away to wipe at his tears._

_ "No, you're not," Blaine said, his own eyes feeling a little wet. "And you're right," he said, trying to place the sense of optimism back in the atmosphere. "Nothing is going to change between us, right?"_

_ "Right." The way Kurt leaned forward was clearly an invitation, one Blaine gladly accepted. They hadn't kissed very much since their very first kiss, since they were never alone and whenever they looked about to kiss, their friends had this rude habit of... well, being rude._

_ Blaine kissed his boyfriend softly, trying to will back the tears and knowing Kurt was doing the same. Kurt pulled away from their soft kisses after a while, and Blaine took a second to admire his boyfriend. His perfect skin, his soft pink lips, the way the afternoon sunlight made his blue eyes glow._

_ "God, you are _so_ beautiful," Blaine muttered, leaning forward to kiss Kurt again._

* * *

"Come on, Anderson," Santana said, no edge to her voice, pulling Blaine away from that bittersweet afternoon. Blaine snapped back to reality, to see Burt and Carole sitting to one side of Kurt's bed. Burt holding his son's hand and Carole resting a hand over the blankets on top of Kurt's leg. Finn was leaning against the wall opposite Kurt, his eyes dark and haunted. Santana took Blaine's hand gently, walking over to Kurt, and Blaine followed like a puppy-dog, completely lost and afraid. Seeing his beautiful boyfriend up close was even worse, the bandage over his forehead marring the perfect appearance from far away. For a moment, it had looked like he was simply sleeping, but that ruined the illusion.

"Kurt..." Blaine whimpered, unable to help himself as he sat down, taking Kurt's free hand and brushing Kurt's mussed hair off of his forehead. "God, Kurt." No one said anything, Santana walking away to lean next to Finn, resting her head on his shoulder in solidarity.

Blaine had no idea how long they stayed in silence like that. He hadn't even noticed if there was a clock in the room, and he certainly wasn't going to look away from Kurt to check it. He was soaking up every second of Kurt's presence that he could. Eventually, there was a rap on the door.

"Excuse me," Dr. Sanchez said softly, obviously realizing that she was interrupting a family moment but having no choice. At least it was her, and not Dr. Eastlake. That man was in dangerous waters with Blaine. "We would like to take Kurt to diagnostic imaging now. The more we know about what's going on with his brain, the better." Not that there was much they could do but hope the swelling went down. Blaine didn't say that though. It wasn't her fault.

"Sure," Burt said gruffly, clearing his throat. "Should we clear out?"

"You may stay in here if you would like, or you can stay in the waiting room," Dr. Sanchez offered as she gestured to people. Two men came in with a gurney, one grabbing Kurt's IV pole, and the other making Blaine start as he disconnected Kurt from the heart monitor. The one continuous beep it let out sounded like a bad omen. It sounded like a flat line. "I can get more chairs, if you..." she gestured helplessly to Santana and Finn. Santana shook her head, Finn didn't react at all.

"We'll stay in here, thanks," Carole said gently. "We want to see him as soon as possible afterwards." Dr. Sanchez nodded as she came forward to assist the two men. One of the men lifted Kurt up easily, placing him on the gurney, the other following with the IV pole. Dr. Sanchez helped them to wheel it out of the room. After the sound of the wheels scraping against the floor faded as Kurt was taken down the hallway, there was silence.

"Maybe you should go home, Santana," Burt said gently. "We might be here for a while."

"No thanks, Mr. H," Santana said quietly, still leaning on Finn. She didn't explain, and Burt didn't comment. "Besides, an MRI is usually like... forty-five minutes."

"God," Blaine muttered. That long? Thankfully, Burt didn't even try to suggest that he went home. There was no chance he was leaving while Kurt was still unconscious. If, God forbid, anything... happened, Blaine wanted to be there.

* * *

**A/N: How do you like so far? No, Kurt's not going to die. He's going to wake up. It literally says in the summary what's going to happen. Happy ending, promise :) Also, the medical stuff in here: not strictly real. Possible, maybe, but not real.**

**Songs mentioned: None. And there probably won't be very many. It's not a sing-song-y type story.**

**Review are Love.**


	2. The Awakening

The wait was torturous. Thankfully, it only took about half an hour, but every second seemed like an eternity as Blaine waited for any kind of news. At the thirty-two minutes, forty-eight second mark, Kurt was wheeled back in on the gurney by two different men and placed back in his hospital bed. Two minutes and seven seconds later, Dr. Eastlake followed the gurney into the room, Dr. Sanchez following the unsympathetic doctor.

"Sorry," Dr. Eastlake said briskly. "I have other patients." As if Kurt was just a long line of many, an unimportant speck in his day. Blaine's blood boiled, but holding Kurt's hand took priority over punching the doctor in the face. "Kurt's MRI revealed that the swelling has gone down considerably." Carole breathed a sigh of relief. "Not quite as much as we would have hoped at this point, but enough that we can nearly assure he will wake up." This time everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Blaine kissing Kurt's limp hand gently.

"We can't make assurances as to what state he will be in when he wakes up," Dr. Sanchez continued gently as she readjusted Kurt's monitors. "In many ways, the brain is still a mystery to us, and we have no way of knowing what effect this swelling may have had on his... mental state." Blaine swallowed a lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. What was worse: Kurt not waking up as the boy he had fallen in love with, or Kurt not waking up at all?

"What are some common side effects?" Carole asked, sounding choked up. Burt patted his wife's back.

"There's really no such thing as a common side effect," Dr. Eastlake replied snidely.

"What Dr. Eastlake means," Dr. Sanchez corrected, "is that unfortunately with traumatic brain injuries, no two injuries are exactly the same. Damage to nerve tracts affect the way a person thinks, acts, feels, and even moves."

"There could also be physical side effect," Dr. Eastlake continued as if Dr. Sanchez hadn't spoke. "The brain regulates internal bodily functions such as temperate, heart rate, blood pressure, and bladder control. Often death due to TBI results from complications due to damages rather than the actual injury itself." As cold as Dr. Eastlake was, at least he had told them one thing that was helpful: Kurt wasn't out of the woods yet. "TBI can cause impairment, and any of the damages can be either temporary or permanent. Sometimes it just doesn't matter." Dr. Eastlake was looking over Kurt's chart as he said this, not even bothering to meet any of their eyes.

"Luckily, Kurt's swelling occurred in areas that don't tend to have extremely averse side effects, at least not fatal ones," Dr. Sanchez said, attempting to pacify Carole, who had burst into tears. "The temporal lobe tends to function in memory, understanding language, sequencing, hearing, and organization. The side effects can be... detrimental, but are rarely incapacitating." Somehow, even that didn't help. Kurt could go deaf, or lose the ability to understand speech. Blaine placed his hand to his head, trying to take deep breaths as a rush of dizziness swept over him. Dr. Sanchez walked over to him. "Are you all right?" she asked softly. Blaine nodded, not wanting the intern to take him away, but she just smiled. "Loosen your tie a little," she ordered, walking over to grab a blanket from the closet and wrapping it around Blaine's shoulders. "Warm up, and try to stay calm."

"Does he need to be treated for shock?" Dr. Eastlake asked, watching her actions with a smug, condescendingly amused expression.

"I think he'll be fine," Dr. Sanchez replied, stepping in front of Blaine as Dr. Eastlake came over, probably to assess him. "I already assessed his pulse and breathing. Any shock he's suffering is low-level."_ There's worse shock than this?_

"Fine," Dr. Eastlake said with a sniff. "We should attend to Melonie." Oh, so _her_ name he remembers. "Call Miss Lewalski in here." Dr. Eastlake stalked out without another word. Dr. Sanchez sighed, obviously upset with her superior's attitude.

"Jessica Lewalski will be Kurt's nurse," she explained to the annoyed family. "She'll take good care of Kurt, I promise, she's highly qualified, and if you need a doctor for any reason," she said, looking at Blaine, "or Kurt wakes up," she very carefully didn't say 'if' again, "press the red button next to his headboard," she showed it to them, "and either Dr. Eastlake or I will be here as soon as possible."

"Thank you," Burt said, dismissing the tired intern.

"Hello," a rather bubbly voice said as she left. The nurse was young and pretty, blonde hair tied up messily over a sweet face, blue eyes that made Blaine's heart clench, they looked so much like Kurt's, and a tight outfit that showed off her other... assets. Blaine was surprised when Finn didn't even give her a second look. "My name is Jessica Lewalski, but you can call me Jess, and I'm in charge of making sure you guys and Kurt are as comfortable as possible for the agonizing wait." She seemed cheerful for someone who worked in the intensive care unit. "Have they told you much about Kurt's condition?" Santana shook her head, obviously interested in what this nurse had to say. "All right," Jess said, unclipping Kurt's chart from his headboard. "All his vitals are blissfully normal, and the swelling's going down at a good rate. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong besides his brain, a few bumps notwithstanding, so hopefully, we can expect him to wake up at any moment. He was on some heavy stuff to make sure he didn't wake up too soon, but he's been eased off all of that, so he could wake up any minute now," Jess said with satisfaction, placing the chart back on the end of Kurt's bed. "Anything I can get for y'all?" Jess' eyes flickered to Blaine as well.

"Unless you have the magic wake pill, no," Santana said coldly, but Jess didn't seem to mind.

"Trust me, I wish I did," Jess said, her tone a little gentler. "It would make everyone in the ward a lot happier." Jess' eyes were full of memories, but she shook her head and her bright smile returned. "No one for water or crappy hospital cafeteria food?" she asked, looking from Finn to Carole to Burt to Blaine and then back to Santana. "All right then. I'll be at the nurses' station, but rest assured I'm a hoot and a half away," she said cheerily.

"Well, she's... bubbly," Santana said, and Blaine wasn't entirely sure Jess was out of earshot for Santana's comment. It wasn't said in a particularly nice tone. "I hate bubbly."

"Kurt's eyelids just fluttered," Finn said coolly, as if it wasn't a revelation, and then everyone's eyes were on Kurt's... which opened painfully slowly.

"Oh, thank God," Carole said, burying her head in Burt's shoulder as Kurt blinked, looking around blearily.

"I..." Kurt was trying to get words out, but his voice was cracked and quiet, Blaine offered him water in a cup, fumbling embarrassingly with the pitcher, which he accepted. "What's going on?" Kurt asked once his voice was semi-audible.

"We were so worried," Blaine said, leaning over to give Kurt a gentle peck. That only seemed to confuse him more. Blaine started to worry as he realized exactly how disoriented his boyfriend was.

"Daddy, what's going on?" Kurt said, his eyes snapping from Blaine's to Burt's. "Why are there so many people?" Kurt sounded so young and scared, Blaine just wanted to hold him and never let go. "Finn," Kurt said, but his voice had gone breathy and high, his cheeks flushing. What the hell? Finn's eyes widened. "Why hello," Kurt continued, sitting up and trying to do something for his appearance. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh no," Finn said. Santana pulled away from where she had been resting on him, and she was snickering softly. "Burt, I think I know what's going on."

"I still don't," Kurt said, but he really didn't seem to care, and his eyes hadn't moved from Finn.

"Kurt, what's the date?" Finn asked him gently, not getting any closer to the bed.

"December 8th," Kurt said, sounding a little confused.

"What year is it?" Burt asked him, as if whatever it was had clicked for him too. Blaine was still completely lost, clutching Kurt's hand like it was a lifeline. The countertenor didn't even seem aware of him.

"Is this one of those 'how sane are you' interrogations?" Kurt asked, smiling at his dad, his brow creasing a little when his gaze fell on Carole. "I'm perfectly fine."

"Just answer the question," Finn said, not sounding quite as nice. Kurt didn't seem to notice.

"2009," Kurt answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and Santana lost it, laughing so hard she wasn't making any sound. "What's so funny, Santana?" he asked coldly. "Why are you even here, you traitorous spy?" That seemed even funnier to her.

"Kurt, do you really think it's 2009?" Blaine asked, finding his voice, and Kurt's gaze fell on him again.

"Do I know you?" Kurt asked, extricating his hand from Blaine's grasp. Blaine swallowed, suddenly feeling like the walls were closing in on him.

"What?" he asked dumbly, realizing everyone was giving him a sympathetic look.

"Who are you?" Kurt asked.

"If this is a joke, babe, this isn't funny," Blaine said, barely able to get the words out. His throat was closing up, his eyes burning. This couldn't be happening.

"I'm not your 'babe,'" Kurt said, looking really confused. "And you... you stole my first kiss! What the hell!" Kurt suddenly yelled as his earlier memories registered. "Get out of my room, you psycho!"

"Kurt, calm down," Burt said, pushing his son back against the bed as black started to float around the edges of Blaine's vision.

"Come on, Blaine," Santana said, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the chair. If it had been any other moment, Blaine would have admired how strong she was, because he was practically dead weight. Right then it felt like he couldn't breath. Santana pulled him out into the hall, shutting the door behind them, and plopping him in a chair before he could collapse. "Breathe, Anderson, or do I have to give you the kiss of life?"

"He doesn't know who I am," Blaine choked out, feeling dizzy and nauseated all at once.

"Well, duh," Santana said, and that more than anything snapped him out of it. "Do you know what December 8th, 2009 was?" Santana asked him, and Blaine shook his head. That date didn't mean anything to him. "That was the date of Sectionals, sophomore year. Kurt's back in time in a bad way. He just hasn't met you yet... and no singing Michael Buble at me, this _so_ isn't the time." He couldn't even register the joke or the reference. Kurt was living in a world that was about eleven months before he had met Blaine.

"What am I gonna do?" Blaine said, feeling like the air was too think to be breathed in. He was feeling cold again, Santana having left his blanket inside, and his throat felt constricted. Black was starting to overpower his vision. "He doesn't know me. He doesn't love me." And with that, he blacked out.

* * *

When he came to, he was in a hospital bed himself, Jess whistling in the chair by his bed. "What happened?" he asked a little groggily, not sitting up yet. All that he registered was that he was in his own clothes, with the exception of his missing tie and an undone shirt button, not a stupid gown.

"Well, as they told me to tell it to you, your boyfriend woke up with about a year and a half of his memory gone, and he has no idea who you are. You, subsequently, passed out in the hallway, and your scary Latina friend dragged your ass in here." It all rushed back, Kurt's words ringing in his head. _"Do I know you? Who are you? I'm not your 'babe'... Get out of here, you psycho!_"

"Oh God," Blaine gasped, sitting up quickly and subsequently falling back down with major head rush.

"Take it easy," Jess said, pouring some water and handing it to Blaine. "Your body just went through a major psychological shock, and I really don't want to have to sedate you."

"How is he?" Blaine asked, taking a sip of his water. "Kurt. How is he?" he repeated at Jess' confused expression.

"The little fighter seems fine. You've been out for about four hours-" Blaine did a spit take with his water. "Gross. Take another sip. Anyway, so in that time, we got an fMRI done on him, because he seems clearly functional, and he passed with flying colors. Minus the chunk of his life, he's fine. We're keeping him for maybe a few days to observe as the rest of the swelling goes down, but he's fine. I promise."

"Good, I guess." It was so much better than some of the alternatives, but at the same time so much worse than Blaine could have imagined. Of all the things that could have happened, Blaine didn't stop to think that Kurt forget him entirely. In hindsight, they really hadn't known each other for that long, had they. It felt like decades.

* * *

_"Having a roommate is such a drag," Kurt teased as he dragged his overnight bag into Blaine's room. It was too heavy for either of them to lift it (Blaine had tried), so Kurt settled on dragging his bad. The floors were pretty clean, after all, and it wasn't as designer as it's contents._

_ "Would you rather sleep in the hallway?" Blaine joked, knowing he would never make Kurt do such a thing. He had offered immediately to let Kurt sleep in his room when he had discovered that Kurt would need to stay the night after Sectionals._

_ "I'll get back to you on that," Kurt said, plopping himself on Blaine's bed in contrast to his words. "Thank you for this, by the way."_

_ "No problem. I've never had a problem with a roommate... they just seem to have problems with me," Blaine said with a shrug._

_ "Should I be scared for my life right now?" Kurt asked very seriously, but they both laughed._

_ "Not unless you insult Harry Potter," Blaine replied with a stern expression._

_ "Never," Kurt said very solemnly, crossing his heart._

_ "Good." Blaine sat on his own bed._

_ "I have to admit, I'm kind of excited about this," Kurt said, smiling a bit._

_ "Your first night away from home?" Blaine asked._

_ "Very funny."_

_ "I'm being serious."_

_ "My first night _very_ far away from home," Kurt admitted with a slight correction. "I mean, sleeping over at Mercedes' or Rachel's is one thing, being in Westerville is totally different."_

_ "I would say I know what you mean, but my house is like six miles from here," Blaine said with a laugh, lying down on his bed._

_ "I'm gad I'm at least with someone I'm comfortable with," Kurt said quietly, the way he always did when he was a little embarrassed, or nervous how something was going to come across, or worried about someone's reply._

_ "I'm glad too," Blaine said. "For some ridiculous reason, I feel like I know you as well as I know Wes or David, and I've known you for what, a month?"_

_ "Well, I'm very loveable," Kurt said, making Blaine chuckle. He had no idea. "I know what you mean, though. I feel the same way, and I'm usually not very trusting."_

_ "I guess that makes me more loveable than you."_

_ "Not a chance. More trustworthy maybe."_

_ "Should I be concerned for my life?"_

_ "Yes."_

* * *

"Earth to Blaine," Jess said gently. "Get your head out of the clouds and tell me how you're feeling so I can release you."

"I... fine," Blaine responded, blinking away a few tears. It seemed so long ago, when he and Kurt were just getting to know each other, barely friends but already feeling so close. "I'm fine. I just... shock, like you said."

"I'll take your word for it," Jess said, surprising him a little. "Only because," she amended, "against all logic, I have news you won't stay in this hospital bed after hearing." She undid his IV and heart monitor. "Kurt wants to see you."

"What?" Blaine asked, his world going a little fuzzy again with that news. "That... makes no sense." He was smiling, despite it. Kurt still wanted to see him.

"Right, like you're annoyed about the lack of logic," Jess said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm surprised you didn't bolt right out of the bed, but you would have gotten lost anyway, because we moved him to neurology for the night. I'll take you there, but be careful. We still don't know exactly how stable he is, and the way that he yelled at you earlier doesn't exactly suggest good things," she said as lightly as she could. "Come on." Jess handed him the tie she had stolen off him and pointed at his shoes at the end of the bed. Blaine stuffed his feet in his shoes, not caring, and stuffed his tie in his pocket, eager to see Kurt. "Eager beaver," Jess teased as they left the ICU.

"Anxious beaver," Blaine corrected.

"Makes more sense, but doesn't have quite as nice a ring to it," Jess said as she led him through the maze. Every step they took brought him closer to Kurt, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. On one hand, Kurt was the boy he was in love with, and he wanted to be close to him at all costs. On the other, Kurt didn't know who he was, didn't remember him. He couldn't kiss Kurt or hold him close like he wanted to. Kurt might not want to see him for a good reason, maybe wanting to yell at him some more, or file a restraining order... "You're thinking too hard," Jess said as they approached the sign that said neurology. "I can smell the smoke."

"Very funny," Blaine said, his throat closing up a little.

"Just... don't faint again. I couldn't drag you around the halls like Santana can, and the boys with the gurneys are _so_ slow." Obviously, Santana and Jess had talked, since Jess knew the Latina girl's name. Blaine was kind of sorry that he missed that. "Room 206," Jess said, pointing out the door. "Kurt's parents and brother went down to the cafeteria to get food, and Santana went home. It'll be just you and him, but I'll be at the nurses' station, okay?" Jess asked, pointing to the desk at the end of the hallway. "Just holler if you need me." Jess gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before heading down the hall.

Blaine swallowed his nerves before opening the door, his slick hand making the metal doorknob a challenge. Why did this hospital have to be weird and still have round doorknobs? When Blaine finally managed to open the door and step into the room, he smiled at the scene before him. The room was dark, the fluorescent obviously lowered somehow, the fake candles Kurt loved so much because they looked real, even flickering, but had no danger scattered around the room. Kurt was wearing the red silk pajamas he loved, the top button undone to make room for some monitor. There was a comforter on the bed that Blaine recognized from his closet, and Kurt was snuggled up with it. A big display of balloons was tied to the edge of his bed, reading 'Get Well Soon' and doubtlessly from one or all of the New Directions. Kurt was watching Moulin Rouge! on his laptop, which was resting on the bed. The only things that ruined the illusion of a normal night were the bandage, the monitors, the steady beep of Kurt's heart, and the setting. "Hi," Blaine managed to choke out, his entrance having been covered by _Elephant Love Medley_.

"Hello," Kurt said, pausing the movie and shutting his laptop.

When he didn't say anything else, Blaine took a few hesitant steps forward. "You wanted to see me?" It was more of a question than a statement. Why had Kurt asked to see him?

"I wanted to apologize to you for earlier," Kurt said softly, not meeting Blaine's eyes. "My dad told me who you were, told me everything that I didn't understand."

"And?" Blaine asked, taking a few more steps forward and eventually just sitting in the chair beside Kurt's bed, careful not to touch him as he so desperately wanted to.

"I'm not sure I believe it," Kurt said honestly, looking up at Blaine with the biggest, most-confused baby blue eyes Blaine had ever seen, and he was feeling himself tear up again. "I mean, I set him up with Carole, whom he's now _married to_? Finn's my brother, and you're my... boyfriend?" Kurt didn't even sound convinced. "It's all so..."

"I'm sure you must be completely lost," Blaine said gently, realizing that whatever Kurt needed was more important than his own conflicted feelings. "I mean, you set Carole and Finn up in February or March 2010, a year you don't even remember seeing. You got over Finn that summer, and you met me during October. Burt and Carole's wedding was in November, after thanksgiving, and it's August of 2011 now. Everything's changed."

"How do you know all of that?" Kurt asked, then stopped Blaine's answer with a hand. "Right. Boyfriend. Sorry."

"It's all right," Blaine said gently, reaching to take Kurt's hand and then stopping himself.

"You... you can, if you want to," Kurt said, gesturing helplessly, but Blaine shook his head.

"I think you've had enough change for one day," Blaine said, looking not into Kurt's gorgeous eyes, but at the bandage on his forehead. "If they had needed to cut any of your hair off to seal up your head, you might have lost it already," he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"You know me well," Kurt said with a smile.

"Yeah," Blaine said, glad Kurt wasn't freaking out. "I know that you love those candles because they look real but they're not dangerous, and because they use the technology from Disneyland. I know those are the pajamas you wear when you want to be comfortable, yet stylish, and they're different from your 'bad mood' pajamas, which are flannel. I know you love that comforter because your mom made it, and I know you need it because those sheets are ridiculously scratchy compared to your Egyptian Cotton one billion thread count ones. I know that Moulin Rouge! is your favorite movie not only because it's romantic, but because you think Ewan McGregor is really sexy, even though nobody really knows how to pronounce his first name." Kurt giggled, flushing pink and kind of staring at Blaine in awe. There weren't words for how much Blaine wanted to kiss him at that moment, and Blaine didn't even realize he was leaning forward until Kurt leaned back a bit, eyes a little wide. "Sorry," Blaine said, moving back to his own personal space.

"That wasn't my first kiss, was it?" Kurt asked, and Blaine knew exactly what he meant.

"No," Blaine said with a smile. "Not even close. _I_ wasn't even your first kiss." Kurt's eyes bulged at that.

"Who was?"

"Brittany S. Pierce," Blaine said, and Kurt cracked up laughing.

"No."

"Yep."

"No."

"Really."

"Wow. How did that happen?" Kurt asked, looking curious and delighted. Blaine smiled. Despite everything that had happened that day, Kurt was happy and he was mostly okay. Everything would be all right.

"You became really, unnecessarily jealous of your father's relationship with Finn a few weeks after Burt and Carole started dating, so you decided that you should become more of the son you thought your father wanted. So, you dressed like him and ate burgers for a week, and to top it all off, you 'dated' and made out with Brittany." Kurt was laughing by the end. "Rest assured, we do not need to repeat that incident."

"Were you there for that?" Kurt asked, and Blaine shook his head. "That sounds ridiculous."

"Oh, I've seen pictures, and videos." Kurt raised an eyebrow. "You sang _Pink Houses_ by John Mellencamp in Glee, and it was recorded." Kurt groaned. "Don't worry. It's not like we all have a copy."

"It's so weird hearing you talk about things I don't remember in past tense," Kurt said, shaking his head.

"Are you feeling all right?" Blaine asked immediately jumping to concern and reaching for him.

"I'm fine," Kurt said with a smile. "I just... it's crazy, waking up and discovering that you don't remember a chunk of your life. There are so many things I missed that were my own experiences." Kurt flushed pink for a reason Blaine didn't understand. "Blaine? It's Blaine, right?" That alone brought Blaine back to reality, from the happy, candlelight story-telling to the fact that Kurt had only known him for a little over four hours, and for most of that Blaine had been unconscious.

"Yeah," Blaine answered softly, curious as to what Kurt was going to ask.

"Have we..." Kurt blushed redder. "Am I..."

"You're still a virgin," Blaine said, saving Kurt the embarrassment of having to ask. Kurt blushed deeply at the words, and he was very much the baby penguin Blaine had been working to open up a little. Oh well.

"Good," Kurt said decisively, then backpedaled quickly. "I mean, not that I... I just..."

"You'd want to remember that," Blaine said, and Kurt nodded, his expression grateful. "Believe me, I'm aware," he said with a laugh, thinking back to the conversation they had had on musicals and fingertips. Kurt blushed again.

"How long have we been..." Kurt gestured between them.

"Over four months," Blaine replied, and Kurt's eyes widened.

"Wow," Kurt said, looking awe-struck again.

"Yeah," Blaine said, trying not to get sucked into his memories again as he thought back on those four months of spring and summer bliss. "I'm sorry you missed your first 'I love you,'" he added, making Kurt's eyes widen further, until he almost looked like a cartoon character.

"You... we... _I_..." Kurt seemed dazed, and Blaine began to worry about overloading him with information again.

"You told me that you loved me, yes," Blaine said. "Well, technically I said it first, but you've said it many times since."

"Wow," Kurt repeated. "And now I don't even..."

"I know," Blaine said, trying not to sound too put out or depressed. The boy he was in love with doesn't even know his last name. He felt a little dizzy again, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "Believe me, I know."

"I'm sorry," Kurt said, and Blaine opened his eyes to look at his... was Kurt still his boyfriend?

"Don't be sorry, this certainly isn't your fault," Blaine said with a sigh.

"I know, but this must suck for you," Kurt said, startling a laugh out of Blaine. "I mean, you've been dating me for four months and you told me you loved me and poof! You're magically erased from my memory." For some reason, that was the most ridiculous and most accurate summary of the day's events Blaine had heard yet.

"It's all right. I'll just have to make you fall in love with me again." Blaine smiled softly at his... Kurt, who suddenly looked a little nervous.

"I'm not..." Blaine had no idea where he was going with this sentence, so he sat and waited patiently for the recently injured boy to assemble his thoughts. "I'm not the same person, Blaine," Kurt said quietly.

"I know," Blaine said just as quietly, making Kurt look up at him, "but I also know that the way I feel about you right now, just based on this conversation, is exactly the way I felt about you yesterday, before all of this." Kurt took a shaky breath.

"Blaine, I..."

"Take your time," Blaine said, soothing Kurt's nerves as best he could when they were talking about such a heavy subject, which must have also been a scary subject for Kurt. "We have all the time in the world, Kurt," Blaine said, taking his hand and squeezing it gently, making his... were they ex-boyfriend's now? smile.

"Okay," Kurt said, still a little shaky. "Do you like Moulin Rouge!?" Kurt asked. "I realized for all the things you've told me about me, I don't know anything about you."

"I love Moulin Rouge!," Blaine replied, smiling. What he didn't say was that they had watched it a hundred times together, and the Warblers always joked that _Come What May_ would be their wedding song. Kurt didn't know who the Warblers _were_. "We pretty much have the same taste in movies, only I can tolerate Finn's obsession with action movies."

"Finn likes action movies?" Kurt asked, and wow, this was weird. Not only that Kurt didn't know that, but that Blaine could still hear a lingering note of Kurt's crush on Finn in his voice. This was going to be an uphill battle.

"Let's watch," was all Blaine said in reply.

Kurt had just gotten the movie back on (Blaine having to tell him what his laptop password was. He had changed it since Sectionals 2009, and apparently he couldn't remember what it was _Finn_ had said it was. Finn's name was still said in a dreamy tone, but Blaine didn't know how to change that without breaking Kurt's heart, like Finn had) when Burt, Carole, and Finn arrived from the cafeteria.

"Are we interrupting something?" Carole asked, handing Blaine his food and making mother hen noises at him when he went to pull out his wallet.

"Glad to see your conscious again, dude," Finn said, offering Blaine a fist bump that he accepted. He couldn't ignore the fact that Kurt's heart rate had sped up as soon as Finn walked in the room.

"Well, I got quite a shock, Finn," he said, ignoring the way Burt raised an eyebrow at their entwined hands.

"Amen, brother," Finn said with a grin, and they both laughed. Blaine decided that he was being stupid. He couldn't be mad at Finn for how Kurt was feeling, and eventually they would find a way to change Kurt's mind, hopefully without rehashing exactly what had happened in the basement. Kurt never needed to hear that word again, especially not from Finn's mouth. Maybe it was better that he couldn't remember that particular incident... and maybe that wasn't the only incident that fit into the category 'better left forgotten.'

"Blaine, are you headed home or are you staying till morning?" That was an excellent question. If Kurt had remembered him, he would have stayed in less than a heartbeat. Kurt didn't, though, and he didn't want to make Kurt uncomfortable. On the other hand, it was almost midnight, and he didn't want to have to drive back to Westerville and arrive home at two AM. He would get in an accident, and that was the last thing they needed: another person in the hospital.

"I..." Blaine hesitated, and Burt chuckled.

"Here," Burt tossed Blaine his keys. "You can crash at our house. Finn and I brought Kurt's Navigator here while he was in his fMRI, and plus we have Finn's truck. Grab Carole's car, go home, sleep, and we'll worry about your car in the morning." Blaine had completely forgotten about his car. It was still at the ice cream shop.

"Thanks, Mr. Hummel."

"Haven't I told you to call me Burt?" Burt said, and Blaine just smiled at the accommodating father. "Get lost. Get some sleep." Blaine left, but he couldn't help but hear one last thing from Kurt when he left.

"Goodnight, Blaine," was said while he was still in Kurt's line of sight. Once Kurt couldn't see him, but he could still hear Kurt, he heard, "He's a good guy, isn't he?" and his question was answered with a resounding yes. Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as he thought.

* * *

**A/N: Yay, Kurt is awake! MWAHAHAHA, he's in love with Finn and has no idea who Blaine is!**

**Ahem. Sorry. I was excited. I hope you guys are liking this story (tell me how you feel about the flashbacks! Cute, annoying, good addition, bad addition? I have them in a few more chapters, but if you want them to go away they can).**

**Songs mentioned:  
**'_Elephant Love Medley_' from _Moulin Rouge!  
_'_Pink Houses_' by _John Mellencamp_

**Review are Love.**


	3. The First Day

"He's a good guy, isn't he?" Kurt asked his father as the boy everyone kept telling him was his boyfriend left. Well, he wasn't sure what to think about that, or about anything right about then (he had the _worst_ headache), but his father definitely seemed to approve of this boy, and everyone was keeping him in the loop.

"He's a good kid, yeah," Burt replied, taking a seat next to Kurt's bed and adjusting his cap. "He makes... he _made_ you pretty darn happy." Kurt looked at his father in surprise, to see the rather distant man smiling. Had everything about his life changed in this year and a half that everyone kept insisting he had forgotten? Either they were being truthful, or this was a ridiculously elaborate joke, and he did _not_ appreciate it.

"Is it true what he told me?" Kurt asked, his father looking to him for clarification. "Have we really been dating for four months?"

"More like five, but yeah," Burt said with a chuckle, taking Kurt's hand. "You know, I never thought I'd be completely okay with any boyfriend you have, but he's a good one, Kurt."

"I don't even know him, dad." Burt sighed.

"I know."

"He really is a sweetheart," Finn's mother added with a smile. She hadn't been talking very much, presumably because she was shocked Kurt had no memory of her dating or marrying his father, but that was completely out of his control. "An excellent cook and a total sap." Carole winked at him, and Kurt shifted a little. Okay, maybe he understood why she had been silent.

"He's a cool dude," Finn added, and Kurt couldn't help the way his heart jumped into his throat whenever Finn looked at him. Kurt knew they were step-brothers now, and his feelings were slightly incestuous, but it was _Finn_. He was still charming, sweet, protective, a little bit goofy, emotionally-astute, and above all, hot. There was nothing wrong with Blaine that he knew of, but he still couldn't compete with Finn in Kurt's mind. No one could compete with Finn.

"I-I'm sure," Kurt said, hating the way he knew his face was heating up. "He seems very... Will he be back tomorrow?" Kurt asked, not entirely sure how to describe the connection he had felt with Blaine. It was different than his connection with Finn, he just wasn't sure that it was better.

"Try to keep him away," Carole said with a laugh.

"He's completely head-over-idiot-heels for you, buddy. You're stuck with him until you tell him to go away." Burt chuckled. It was amazing how much had changed, and it made Kurt sad that he had missed it all. At the same time, why had _Santana_ been in his hospital room?

Too many questions, he decided as he requested aspirin from his immediately concerned family, who in turn called the nurse and asked her if a headache was a bad thing. The nurse rolled her eyes, giving the family a sassy answer and telling Kurt his head would probably feel a bit better in the morning if he went to sleep, and she could give him a shot of something to help with both issues. Kurt had agreed, and it was a few short minutes before Kurt was asleep, slumped back on his pillow and watched quietly by the family that didn't know quite what to do with him.

* * *

_"I can't believe we're going to Nationals," Kurt told him in late May, curled up on his couch within Burt and Carole's range of hearing. "It feels like a dream," he admitted with a smile. "I'm just sorry you can't be up there on stage with me." Kurt looked up at his with the softest eyes, and Blaine would have kissed him if Kurt's parents couldn't see them. Unfortunately, they could._

_ "We had our glorious moment in the spotlight, Kurt," Blaine appeased his boyfriend. "And getting to Regionals was good enough for me. Do you know how long it's been since the Warblers went to Regionals? And that was all because of you." He kissed his boyfriend's nose, figuring that was appropriate enough. "The New Directions will be lucky to have you at Nationals."_

_ "Unfortunately, there's absolutely no chance of the New Directions __utilizing __me at Nationals," Kurt said with a sigh, reaching forward for the remote and turning on a show to which neither of them were paying any attention. "I'm still some sort of androgynous background singer to them."_

_ "Androgynous? Do you need to tell me something?" Blaine asked very seriously, making his boyfriend laugh._

_ "No. Trust me, if you spent more time around the New Directions, you would know what I mean. They can't seem to decide if they want to treat me like a boy or a girl." Kurt pointed to his father and mouthed something quickly that Blaine didn't catch, but he got the general gist. The New Directions weren't the only ones who didn't know how to treat Kurt._

_ "I think they've over-thinking it," Blaine said with a chuckle. "Just treating you like you're a human is perfectly fine." Blaine was happy when Kurt smiled and surprised when he leaned up to kiss Blaine, regardless of Burt's suddenly suspicious gaze._

_ "I'm glad you do," Kurt said once he had finished giving Blaine soft, sweet, almost teasing kisses. Kurt stood up. "Do you want something to eat? I figured we could watch this." Kurt gestured to the movie playing. __The Dark Knight._

_"You are the best boyfriend ever, but no, thank you, I'm fine on food." Kurt gave him a smile before walking into the kitchen, almost tripping over the edge of a rug in the still-unfamiliar house. Suddenly, the scene changed. Kurt's kitchen melted into the Lima landscape, the rug he had tripped over turning to dirt, the Hudson-Hummels' table being replaced by one of the wooden ones of that accursed ice cream stand_.

_ His designer boots scraped against the ground as he walked, Kurt not lifting his feet quite enough for the heels to clear the ground. Kurt's hips swayed a little, inviting Blaine to look, but Blaine focused on the foot that was suddenly in front of Kurt's calves. A boot-clad, abnormally large foot had tripped Kurt, his knees buckling and hitting the ground just before Kurt's head hit the rim of the table_._Thud__. His milkshake hit the ground and spilled, the thick white liquid running out along the dirt as blood poured from the slash on Kurt's head. The two mixed on the ground, creating a pink liquid that smells of rust and salt, and makes Blaine's stomach turn._

_ Blaine couldn't move, couldn't run to help Kurt as he had in reality. He watched it as his boyfriend's near-albino skin got even paler, blood dying the milkshake more red than white. There were sirens, simultaneously far away and extremely loud, but they didn't seem to be approaching, a constant white noise in Blaine's ears. All he could do was watch as Kurt bled into the beverage he had refused to drink and onto the dirt that had been caked into the wound on his head when he arrived in the hospital_.

* * *

Blaine ran to the bathroom as soon as he woke up, but he didn't seem to need to, his stomach having settled. He knelt by the toilet anyway, groggy and exhausted. Everything about the day before seemed a blur in his head besides that horrible moment. Blaine had a feeling that would be engraved in his memory for a long time... but one never really knew, did they? He could faint right now, slam his head off the toilet, and have forgotten everything good about his life in moments. It was terrifying.

It was stupid, he knew, but he dialed Finn's number anyway, with shaking fingers. He wanted to call Kurt, but he would probably be in a heavily medicated sleep. He had been getting a headache as they talked, that little wrinkle in his forehead giving away his discomfort. If it had been any other day, Blaine could have kissed that exact spot and tucked him in for a nap, but it wasn't and he couldn't.

"_Hello_?" Finn's voice was hushed, but his voice didn't sound scratchy, and his tone wasn't annoyed. He hadn't been asleep. "_Couldn't sleep? You can totally come back to the hospital, dude, the nurse has a major thing for you_."

"Unfortunately, sleeping didn't seem to be the greatest idea," Blaine said bitterly, still slumped on his bathroom floor with no care for how clean the surface might be.

"_Bad dream_?" Finn asked, and Blaine nodded, not caring that Finn couldn't see him.

"So, just to make sure I remember everything right: Kurt wakes up, has no idea who the hell I am, I pass out, I wake up and find out Kurt's missing everything since December 2009, but is otherwise fine. Doing well so far?" Blaine asked, and Finn chuckled.

"_Yep, you're good, dude._" They sat in silence for a few seconds, before Finn cleared his throat and added, "_It'll all be fine, dude. I mean, I know this sucks, because Kurt's still inf- infa- ina-_"

"Infatuated," Blaine filled in the blank.

"_Right, _infatuated _with me and he doesn't know who you are, but this isn't Kurt and it's not forever, right? You made him fall in love with you once,_" Finn pointed out, and that made Blaine smile.

"You're right, of course. Thanks, Finn."

"_Try to get some more sleep,_" Finn said, very big-brother-esque. It almost made Blaine miss Cooper. Almost. "_And if you have any more bad dreams, you've got my number._" Finn hung up before he could say something stupid or unintentionally suggestive in reply to that comment, which created a lump in his throat. Finn was a great guy.

* * *

Blaine was happy to see Kurt awake as soon as he got to the hospital that morning (he hadn't thought to take note of the visiting hours, but thankfully Jess had spotted him and let him in a little early), curled up in those same silk pajamas, reading a Vogue magazine that Blaine presumed he had gotten from the small stack next to his bed. There were several more bouquets and bunches of balloons around the room, obviously having been delivered this morning on behalf of the New Directions. Kurt appeared to be cuddling with a medium-sized stuffed unicorn, which had purple hair and a pink horn and was adorable. It was probably from Brittany.

Finn was sitting next to his bed, looking through a Sports Illustrated and not looking terribly interested. He assumed Burt and Carole were downstairs getting food and coffee (or out getting food and coffee. Hospital food was usually terrible). "Hey, dude," Finn greeted him as he walked in the door, and Kurt's head snapped up.

"Hello," Kurt said casually with a smile, and Blaine's heart flipped in his chest.

"G-good morning," he managed to get out, ignoring Finn's little smirk at his stutter. "How are you feeling?" In hindsight, that was an incredibly stupid question, but Kurt answered it.

"Better. Less of a headache this morning." Kurt placed down his Vogue, staring at him with those ridiculously blue eyes and unnerving him.

"Nice unicorn." Okay, that was even worse, but Kurt laughed anyway.

"Thanks, it's from-"

"Brittany, I know," Blaine finished Kurt's sentence before he thought about it, and Kurt sighed, his eyes turning sad.

"I forgot you know the New Directions," he said ruefully. "You probably know them better than I do at this point."

"Don't worry, they still love you more," Blaine said with a grin, and Kurt smiled a little at that.

"Apparently, I have to do a bunch of asinine tests today because they're convinced there must be something wrong with me besides an inability to remember one-sixteenth of my life," Kurt said with a roll of his eyes. Blaine decided that since the amnesiac was acting generally normal around him, it would be okay to sit on the end of his bed. When Blaine went to, Kurt smiled, curling his feet up and inviting Blaine to sit down with a pat of his hand on the bed.

"One-seventeenth," he corrected. "You're seventeen now." Kurt's face went a little blank as he processed this.

"Right. Seventeen. I know it doesn't seem like much, but missing a birthday is kind of crazy." Kurt's tone sounded a little disoriented, but he smiled. "Seventeen. The age all women want to be immortalized at."

"God, can you imagine being seventeen forever?" Blaine asked. "I don't know why that sounds appealing to girls, it sounds absolutely horrible to me."

"To be youthful and attractive?" Kurt suggested with a shrug. "Beats me."

"Well, I guess it makes more sense when you put it _that_ way," Blaine said with a laugh. The Kurt he knew would have laughed, this Kurt blushed and looked away. "Too far?" he asked.

Kurt shook his head. "No. I guess I'm just... No." Blaine got what he meant. Kurt had become used to jokes like that at Dalton. He didn't know what Dalton was.

Finn cleared his throat. "Not that I'm not used to feeling like the third wheel, but can I turn the TV on or something?" Kurt opened his mouth to apologize, but Finn cut him off. "Dude, it's fine. You've got a lot of catching up to do." Kurt blushed again, and Finn winked at Blaine as Kurt looked around for the TV remote.

"I don't see-"

"I got it," Blaine said, reaching for the clicker at the same time Kurt did. The moment that followed must have come out of the most ridiculous romance novel of all time, because Finn rolled his eyes just watching it. Both of their hands touched the remote at the same time, and Kurt gasped at the shock that went through (obviously) both of them. Blaine gulped as Kurt's eyes locked on him.

"Seriously, guys?" Finn asked after several moments of heavy silence, Kurt and Blaine staring at each other. "This is worse than the flirty conversation. All I wanted was the damn remote."

"Oh, Finny, lay off," Jess said as she walked in the room. "Wow, the sexual tension in here is... whew!" she exclaimed, fanning herself. That was enough to make Kurt look away, blushing again. "How ya feeling, my dear?" Jess asked, sitting on the other side of the bed and taking a look at Kurt's chart.

"Fine, actually," Kurt answered.

"You sound surprised," Jess said with a grin. "Head hurt?" Kurt shook his head. "Good, but if you keep doing that it might. I see Doctor Eastabunny came to visit you this morning. So, I guarantee you're a little irritable, he has that effect." Kurt laughed at Jess' description of Dr. Eastlake, and Blaine took advantage of Kurt and Jess' conversation to get off Kurt's bed and sit in the chair next to Finn, who had (at some point) stood up and gotten the television remote for himself. He was watching preseason football. Blaine attempted to watch along with him, but he was more paying attention to the conversation going on between nurse and patient.

"I don't understand how you put up with him," Kurt answered, and Blaine could tell by Kurt's voice that he was smiling.

"Trust me, he's not even the worst doctor in this hospital. And as awful as he is, especially with bedside manner, he knows what he's doing. He's like... ever seen Scrubs?" God, yes he had. He and Blaine had watched every episode of that show during the last two months. Apparently, Kurt nodded or something, because Jess kept talking. "He's like Doctor Kelso for the first few seasons. A complete asshole with a great record. Speaking of records... this is all off it, right?"

"Of course, and I doubt they're even listening." Kurt was obviously talking about him and Finn.

"Never underestimate the entrancing power football has on men," Jess said with a laugh. "Any sudden flashes of memory?"

"Not exactly," Kurt said with a sigh.

"Aw, sweetie, it's all right. We don't expect recovery to happen this quickly."

"Wait... there's a chance I could get my memory back?" Blaine knew all about this (from a quick search on Web M.D.), and he just hoped Jess wasn't getting Kurt's hopes up.

"There's always a chance, sweetie, but the fact is most patients with a head injury like yours are a lot worse off than you are." That felt like someone had drenched Blaine in ice water. "We'll take you in later to check on your swelling, and I'll have a more accurate guesstimate on your memory then, okay?"

Blaine heard Jess' soft nursing shoes hit the tile, and then she walked off, through the door, all the way to the nurses' station. He was so focused on listening to her walk away that he didn't even notice a second pair of feet. "That was sobering," Kurt said with a sigh, taking a seat next to Finn. Blaine jumped about a foot when he noticed Kurt was up.

"Should you be walking around?" Blaine asked, immediately concerned for Kurt's safety. Kurt rolled his eyes.

"They made me do all kinds of motor tests to establish this, so I'm happily saying yes. No more catheters, no more wheelchairs, _freedom_." Kurt sounded pleased... then a little embarrassed. "Um... too weird?"

"No," Blaine answered.

"Yes," Finn said at the same time.

Thankfully, they didn't stare at each other and then switch answers, again simultaneously. That would have officially made this morning a bad medical sitcom.

"Honey, you should probably still be in bed," was the first thing Carole said when she saw that the three boys were sitting in chairs, watching football. Kurt remembered Single Ladies (Blaine was almost disappointed about that, he loved watching Kurt's face light up as they told him stories), but between the two of them, they managed to cover Coach Beiste, winning the championship, doing the _Thriller_ mash-up, and the girls joining the football team in the time between Kurt getting out of bed and Carole and Burt returning from wherever they had been.

"Carole, Dr. Eastlake said it was fine for me to be walking. And besides, I'm sitting. Close enough. My head is fine." Carole gave up on the argument.

"Well, I'm shocked to see you here, kid," Burt said to Blaine with a chuckle. "So surprised, in fact, that we even brought you food." Burt stared at Blaine disbelievingly the moment he reached for his wallet. "Really, we're back to that?"

"Old habits die hard? Besides, you technically have no reason to be buying me food anymore." The comment was off-handed, but that didn't mean it didn't cause total, sudden, awkward silence.

"Are you boys watching football? Did Kurt happen to forget his hatred of it in this process?" Carole asked with a smile after the occupants of Kurt's hospital room had spent several quiet moments awkwardly staring at each other.

"Actually, we were just telling Kurt stories about the things he's missed," Finn answered. He was doing a remarkable job not freaking out about how focused Kurt was on everything he was saying, how over-reached Kurt's laughs were, how Kurt had spent about half of the time Finn had been talking staring at his mouth or oh-so-subtly touching his arm. It was like flirting right out of The House Bunny.

"Oh, good. Did you tell him about the crowd chanting _brains_?" Carole asked with a laugh, and the boys nodded. "That was so fun, wasn't it, honey bee?" Carole asked Blaine, who nodded.

"You were there?" Kurt asked, and Blaine didn't even have the chance to open his mouth before Kurt answered his own question. "Right. Boyfriend." Kurt sounded like he was still getting used to not only the concept, but also the word, like it was foreign to his mouth.

"Not at the time, actually," Blaine said with a smile, sitting back down after having gotten his donut and leaving a few dollars in the bag for Burt to find later. Kurt put his head in his hands with a groan.

"Does your head hurt again?" Finn asked.

"You'll remember eventually, babe," Blaine said without thinking.

"I... excuse me," Kurt said, getting out of the room as fast as possible.

"Whoops," Blaine said with a sigh.

"It's okay, honey bee, we all forget," Carole said, sighing as well. "He's still having trouble with the fact that we're married." Burt gave his wife a kiss on the cheek.

"I win," Finn announced. "He's still crushing on me."

"At least you're better about it this time," Blaine said, mostly teasing.

"Shut up," Finn snapped. His reaction seemed unreasonably hostile, then Blaine realized what Finn was thinking of. The basement. What he had said to Kurt. What they would probably, eventually, have to tell Kurt about, and how he would react was a complete mystery to them.

"I can hear you in the bathroom," Kurt announced as he walked back into the room. Kurt seem about to continue, but he slipped on the smooth tiles (his hospital booties seemed traction-less), and Blaine reached out for him automatically, catching him around the waist and pulling him up effortlessly. "Uh... thanks," Kurt said hesitantly. God, they fit so well together. Two puzzle pieces.

"W-welcome," Blaine said, releasing his... he didn't even know what to call Kurt at this point.

"So, what's going on with the Glee club?" Kurt asked, clearing his throat. He was a little pink.

"Well, Tina's still with Mike-"

"_Still_?" Kurt asked, surprised.

"Did you think they had... right," Blaine corrected himself once he realized. Kurt still thought Tina and Artie were together. "Tina and Artie broke up during the summer between your sophomore and junior years. Artie dated Brittany briefly, but that didn't work out because he called her stupid accidentally and she's still in love with Santana."

"I'm getting that headache again," Kurt announced, rubbing his temples.

"Sorry. Information overload. Maybe we should talk about this when you're feeling a little better." Kurt gave him an odd look. Almost... disbelief? Surprise?

"Right," was all he said.

"Mr. Hummel, they're ready for you at the testing center," Dr. Sanchez announced, entering the room, thankfully not followed by Dr. Eastlake.

"I should... I should probably get going," Blaine said. It wasn't that he had anything better to be doing or anywhere to go. It was just that he kept either shooting himself in the foot or putting said foot in his mouth.

"I... okay," Kurt replied.

"Finn and I grabbed your car, buddy. Sorry I forgot to ask you for the keys." They had hot-wired his car. Awesome. "No damage, promise."

"I'll see you later, Kurt." This was so out of line. This was way out of line. He should just awkwardly wave and leave... but he had almost lost Kurt yesterday, and it still didn't really seem real. So, Blaine was an idiot. He grabbed Kurt in a hug, sighing when he could finally feel Kurt, solid and healthy, in his arms. Kurt stiffened at first, but relaxed, wrapping his arms around Blaine's neck and returning the hug.

"Could we wrap this up please?" Dr. Eastlake asked, entering the room just in time to annoy everyone in it. Blaine had no idea how long they had been hugging, he felt completely suspended in time, happy and safe in Kurt's arms. "We have other patients and this wing needs to test other people. I appreciate the whole Brady Bunch vibe around here-"

"Dr. Eastlake," Dr. Sanchez said firmly. "Mr. Hummel, if you would please come with us?" Even she sounded a little annoyed, so Blaine let go of Kurt, who was flushing a little.

"Um, bye." Kurt waved to the rest of his family and headed out the door with the attending and the intern. The other occupants watched them walk out and then looked at each other in silence.

"Too far?" Blaine asked.

"I'll walk you to your car, kid," Burt said, throwing Blaine his jacket and practically pushing him out of the room.

* * *

"I like you, kid, you know that."

"And I appreciate your approval, sir," Blaine replied as they walked down the hall. He could see Kurt, Dr. Eastlake, and Dr. Sanchez walking into a room down another hall. Kurt caught his eye and waved with a smile.

"And I know this is hard for you, because my son has absolutely no idea who the hell you are or what to do with you," Burt sounded resigned, and Blaine had a feeling he had talked to Kurt about this.

"Sir?"

"He still likes Finn."

"I know, sir." Blaine didn't bother to correct Kurt's father. Kurt had been in love with Finn, something he had admitted only to Blaine, and something Blaine still kept a secret, even though Kurt didn't remember saying it.

"This is hard for him too."

"I'm well aware, sir."

"Stop calling me 'sir,' kid, we've talked about this." Blaine didn't reply. "I know you want your... God, your _boyfriend_ back, but that kid in there is sixteen and has no idea what it's like to be in a relationship. He still thinks that some kid named Matt is part of the Glee club, and that Finn and Puck are fighting about a fetus that's already been born and has a nice family now. He has a whole hell of a lot of problems to deal with, and he doesn't need you to be one of them. Be his friend, that's fine. Just don't push him."

"I feel like we've had this conversation before," Blaine said, and Burt chuckled.

"True. Very true. Kurt needs a lot of support to get through this kind of thing, but he doesn't need a boyfriend."

"I know that, Mr. Hummel, but I just..." Blaine sighed. How could he say this to Kurt's father?

"Kid, it's been a long two days. My son's in the hospital with a severe injury to his brain, he doesn't remember my wife, and he's making goo-goo eyes at his own step-brother. The last thing I need is for you to beat around the bush."

"I miss him," Blaine said honestly. "I miss him, and it's awful to sit in there and know that when I leave, he won't miss me. He probably doesn't even think about me. I mean _nothing_ to him, and he means everything to me." Burt sighed, readjusting his baseball cap. Blaine knew by now that meant he was either nervous or uncomfortable. In this situation, it could be both.

"Jess thinks he'll be in the hospital for about two more days." Clearly, the emotional part of the conversation was over. "We're going to try to reintroduce him to all the New Directions, and you can tell him about your Warbler friends. They keep texting him, and he's going crazy because he doesn't know who any of them are." Blaine chuckled. The Warblers _would_ be hounding Kurt, and as soon as they found out he didn't have any memory of any of them... oh, they were going to have fun.

"I'll put the reins on them." Or rather, he would make Wes put the reins on them. Same thing.

"Rachel and Mercedes are coming to the hospital after Kurt's tests. Are you really leaving?" It was a good question. Blaine definitely didn't want to go home (he didn't want to be two hours away if there was, God forbid, any deterioration in Kurt's condition), but he was beginning to wonder if the fact that he was there only made it more confusing for Kurt.

"You should probably talk to Santana as well. Kurt was wondering when he woke up why she was in his hospital room, and he probably still is." Blaine really didn't have an answer to Mr. Hummel's question, but thankfully he seemed to understand that.

"In case you're curious," Mr. Hummel began, readjusting his cap again, "he was asking about you last night, after you left."  
"I know," Blaine interjected, and explained when Burt looked at him curiously. "He didn't wait quite long enough for me to be out of ear shot." Mr. Hummel chuckled.

"Subtlety never has been his best quality. Anyway, I don't think he's against having you around. You confuse him a little, maybe, but I think everything does at this point." It was a sad truth. Even the things that had been constants in his life before, like Burt and Finn, had changed a lot since the time Kurt remembered.

"I can go pick up Rachel, Mercedes, and Santana, if you want," Blaine offered finally, and Burt chuckled.

"Of course you can. Make sure you get those Warbler boys off his back before one of them tells Kurt he's the king of France." That would definitely be David.

"Will do."

* * *

Blaine pulled up in front of the Berry household. Rachel's house was closest to the hospital, in a nice neighborhood on the western outskirts of Lima. On the outside, it looked cozy, but Blaine knew how high-fashion the inside was. It was amazing that any daughter of Hiram and Leroy's had turned out so... fashionably-challenged, as Kurt would say.

* * *

_ "Dear God, Rachel, your closet makes me want to burn your house down just to remove such a nauseating presence from the planet," Kurt commented as he pulled various items of clothing out of Rachel's closet and threw them in the trash can. Rachel took a few of them back out when he wasn't looking, and Blaine knew there would be an argument about those later._

_ "Just because I don't particularly appreciate your opinion of my clothing, doesn't mean my style's bad, it's just... unique," Rachel argued, brushing her hair out of her face with her free hand. "Like me."_

_ "No. Unique is unique. You need help. There's a very big difference." Kurt's voice sounded like he was underwater, he was that deep into Rachel's ridiculous closet. "Dear Jacobs, how many ridiculous animal sweaters do they sell? Get rid of these and half of your closet is empty."_

_ "You're not getting rid of all of them, are you?" Rachel asked, sounding panicked._

_ "Oh yes I am."_

_ Blaine listened to them continue to argue with a fond smile. Sitting on Rachel's obnoxiously pink bed in Rachel's obnoxiously pink room while Kurt tore her closet apart and Rachel fought valiantly to save her clothing wasn't exactly his ideal way to spend an afternoon, but he and Kurt got so little time together since Kurt had transferred back to McKinley. He was glad that his boyfriend was happy and not having too much difficulty re-adjusting, but he missed walking through the halls holding hands with Kurt. Now he scrounged for scraps of Kurt's time. Not that Kurt was enjoying the separation, but he seemed to be ridiculously busy, and Blaine was the one who fought to make sure they didn't forget about each other completely. He couldn't wait for summer._

_ "Blaine, sweetie?" Kurt was using that annoyed tone that suggested he had said this several times already. "Can I get your opinion?"_

_ "Of course," Blaine said, coming back to reality with a smile. Kurt's slightly annoyed expression melted into one of the smiles he only shared with Blaine._

_ "This is too horrible to remain on the planet, right?" Blaine didn't even have words to describe the article of clothing Kurt was holding up. It was some kind of top, he would gather, although it was completely shapeless, and there were so many overlapping colors on it, it gave the overwhelming impression of 'brown,' even though that color seemed to be the only one missing. There was some sort of animal on the front, but it was multicolored as well, and Blaine mentally labeled whatever animal it was the God of Clash._

_ "Where the hell did you find this, Rachel?" Blaine asked, hopping off the bed to look at the item closer. It was absolutely horrendous. "The bottom of a painter's garbage, along with his dead, mutilated cat?"_

_ "Blaine!" Rachel objected while Kurt cracked up laughing. "That's not funny! This sweater is-"_

_ "Abhorrent, Rachel," Kurt cut her off. "The word you're looking for is abhorrent." Kurt tossed it in the garbage can, and Rachel huffed back off towards her severally dilapidated looking closet. "You okay over here?" Kurt asked Blaine softly._

_ "Yeah, it's actually kind of fun to see what kind of... I hesitate to call them 'wonders,' that Rachel has in her closet." Her wardrobe was absolutely ridiculous._

_ "Not too bored?" Kurt asked, sounding overly concerned._

_ "I could never be bored while you're around, Kurt," Blaine said with a smile, not caring if it was sappy. Kurt blushed, and Blaine kissed him gently._

_ It took Rachel a grand total of four minutes to realize that Kurt hadn't followed her back into her closet, and to subsequently come __out_ _of her closet and interrupt them. "Do you two mind?" she asked them where Blaine had pushed Kurt up against her Annie poster. She sounded __extremely__ annoyed._

_ "Yes," Kurt said, barely breaking their lip lock to reply._

_ After about two more minutes of whining, Rachel gave up and went back inside her closet alone._

* * *

Blaine shook himself to get back to the present. It was one of his more pleasant memories of Rachel's house, at least. His brain hadn't dragged him back to that accursed party.

Before he could get lost in his head some more, Blaine hopped out of his car and walked up to Rachel's house, knocking on the door. It was opened almost immediately, and surprisingly, not by Rachel.

"Hello, our little superstar, what are you doing here?" Hiram asked, opening the door for Blaine to come in. "I heard about your lovebird, is he okay?" Nothing sounded serious when Hiram said it, but Blaine knew he was really concerned.

"He's doing well. They took him in for some testing to make sure there's no further damage."

"Further damage?" Leroy asked, coming into the room with two beers, offering one to Blaine, who declined, before handing it to his husband.

"He doesn't remember the last year and a half. He's stuck in December 2009." Near identical expressions of pity appeared on their faces at the same time. They knew what that meant. "He's fine other than that, but he has a lot of catching up to do." Blaine glanced over at the clock, relieved to notice he had only been musing in his car for about ten minutes.

"Oh, poor sweetie, he doesn't even know your name, does he?" Hiram asked, and Leroy muttered something under his breath that definitely contained the word 'insensitive.'

"Well, I've talked to him, but he doesn't remember anything about our relationship, no." The looks of pity hadn't gone away. "Is Rachel home?"

"Sweetie, just because Kurt doesn't remember you, doesn't mean you should revert to our daughter," Hiram said with a smile, and that earned him a roll of the eyes from Leroy.

"He's kidding, of course, we would be positively _thrilled_ if you were to date Rachel. Not that Finn's not a nice boy, but," the two parents exchanged a look that spoke volumes that Blaine didn't understand, and Leroy didn't finish his sentence.

"I, uh, appreciate that, I suppose, but I'm actually here to pick her up and bring her to the hospital. We're working on re-introducing Kurt to everyone, so we figured Rachel was one of the people who would be more eager to be a part of this."

"If this was a year and a half ago," Hiram began as if something had just occurred to him, "that means Kurt and Rachel were fighting over Finn, and Kurt gave our daughter an awful makeover that made her look like Sandy from _Grease_." Damn, they were astute.

"Yeah. It's... interesting at the hospital right now." They still hadn't even told him if Rachel was home. "You guys are more than welcome to visit, but we're trying not to overwhelm him, so we're focusing on the people that are dying to see him." Plus, a year and a half ago, the Berrys' enthusiasm had made Kurt uncomfortable, and they seemed to understand this based on his cordial invitation.

"We'll wait until he's home," Leroy said, smiling at Blaine in that odd way that made the tenor think the older man knew all of his secrets by looking at him once. "Rachel's upstairs in her room."

"Thank you, Mr. and Mr. Berry," Blaine said graciously as he headed up the stairs before he could get dragged into another conversation with Rachel's dads. Not that they weren't nice, but they talked a lot.

Blaine knocked on Rachel's door, even though it wasn't entirely necessary. He could hear the fact that Rachel was practicing from halfway up the stairs, and he had to practically slam his fist against the door for her to hear him. Once she did, the singing stopped, the karaoke track turned off, and the door opened. With blinding speed, Rachel raced out of her room and squeezed the breath out of Blaine.

"Hi, Rach," he managed to get out with what little oxygen he had left.

"Are you okay? I've been so worried, and Finn's been texting me frequently with updates about Kurt's health but he hasn't bothered to mention how you're doing. I've kept wanting to ask him, but I know he's so concerned about Kurt and the renewal of that particular crush that he probably hasn't even bothered to keep tabs on you." Ah, so Finn wasn't handling Kurt's crush as well as it looked on the outside. Either that, or Rachel was misinterpreting his words. That seemed to happen a lot with her.

"Actually," Blaine said once Rachel had pulled back so that he could breath and she could try, in her own special way, to read his facial expression, "Finn's been pretty great. And I'm doing all right. At least he's okay." Rachel gave him one more quick, tight hug.

"Do you want to come in?" she asked, gesturing to his room. "I know it's a little messy, and my dads usually don't like it when I have boys in here, including Finn, but I know they love you and they would be happy if you _were_ my boyfriend, but you _are_ gay."

"I'm actually here to collect you." Blaine understood where Rachel had gotten the chattiness from, so he tried not to get too annoyed with her. "We're re-introducing Kurt to his friends-"

"I'll grab a t-shirt." Blaine hadn't realized until then that she was only wearing a very see-through tank top. Rachel ducked into her obtrusively pink room with no explanation necessary.

"We have to go pick up a few more people first," Blaine called into her room, waiting patiently by the door for Rachel to wade through the mess that was her bedroom floor. "Why is your room so messy anyway?" Rachel was usually pretty obsessive about keeping her room clean.

"I can't find one of my iPods," Rachel replied, somewhere in the depths of her closet. "I've been looking all over for it, but I think it's a lost cause at this point."

* * *

Rachel was not pleased, when she actually paid attention long enough to hear what Blaine was saying, that she had to wait to see Kurt until they picked up Mercedes (who only lived about ten minutes away) and Santana (who lived on the opposite side of town), but she really didn't have a choice in the matter. Blaine drove to Mercedes' house, but thankfully avoided an awkward conversation with Mrs. Jones (who loved Blaine almost as much as the Berrys did) because Mercedes was playing with Sam's little siblings on the front lawn, Sam watching from the shade with lemonade.

"Took you long enough, white boy," Mercedes said with a roll of her eyes as Blaine stepped out of his car. Rachel decided to stay in the air conditioning. The humidity and high temperature of the day hadn't even registered in Blaine's mind yet. He had been so focused on Kurt... it was kind of nice to get some fresh air. "Burt got me on the phone," Mercedes explained, and Blaine was a little envious of how easily the girls said Kurt's father's first name. He'd always had trouble with that. "I'm guessing he got one of the Berry daddies."

"I'm going to assume so," Blaine answered. "Are you ready to come to the hospital?"

"Heck yeah. Sam's coming too." Mercedes didn't give him much of an option, and Blaine felt bad saying 'no' right in front of the guy, but...

"Dude, if Kurt's not up to it, I'm more than happy to say here," Sam said, giving him a hail Mary pass, but Blaine shrugged.

"You can come if you want to, but he's going to stare as blankly at you as he does at me. It probably won't be very fun." Mercedes gave him a quick hug at that, and he really hadn't been trying to make things awkward.

"I'll stay," Sam decided. "Besides, don't want to leave the goobers alone. Stacy! Stevie!" Stevie had already run around the back of Mercedes' house, but Stacy came straight to him. Sam grabbed his little sister, put her on his hip, and raced off to find his brother.

"Smooth, white boy," Mercedes said with no explanation as she headed towards Blaine's car. "To the hospital next then?"

"We have to pick up Santana," Blaine replied, and got a chorus of groans from the occupants of his car.

* * *

Santana's neighborhood was adjacent to the ghetto of Lima, but was literally on the other side of the tracks. She lived in a big house with only one car in front of it: hers. Blaine could relate.

Santana wasn't expecting them at all, so Blaine had to go up to the intimidating, large front door and ring the bell as Mercedes and Rachel yelled for him to hurry up. They were really eager to see Kurt.

Santana answered the door after a minute. "Hey there, Kermit." Apparently, he had adopted that nickname. It really wasn't the worst thing she had called him, so he didn't object. "How's your boy?"

"He's all right." Santana had been there for most of it, so thankfully he didn't have to go through the painful explanation again: how the love of his life had no clue who he was and was still crushing on his step-brother. Jeez. "We're re-introducing him to Rachel and Mercedes, you wanna come along?" It was easy to talk to Santana, as much as she scared most people. She wasn't angry, she was just lonely.

"Sure, introduce the amnesiac to the three scariest girls so everyone else looks tame in comparison." Santana closed the door behind herself, not bothering to call goodbye to anyone. Blaine had a feeling that house was very empty.

"Well, Rachel and Mercedes are his best friends, even if he's kind of stuck at the point that he and Rachel were fighting over Finn, and he was curious why you were there yesterday."

"So, basically, you didn't want to be alone in the room with those three diva wack-jobs?"

"No!" Blaine objected, because that really wasn't true. "I just want to make sure he gets better as fast as possible."

"There's nothing wrong with him, Blaine," Santana corrected him rather coldly. "Just because he doesn't know who we are, doesn't mean we don't know who he is."

"I think that's the deepest thing you've ever said to me."

"Shut up, Kermit."


	4. The Overwhelming Incident

Kurt was laughing at something Finn was saying that probably wasn't even funny as Blaine, Mercedes, Rachel, and Santana stepped into the hotel room. Blaine tried to fight the rush of jealousy and anger, and judging by Rachel's expression, she was trying to do the same thing.

"Hey, baby," she said brightly, crossing the room and deliberately kissing Finn inches from Kurt's face. Blaine immediately felt bad for his jealousy as he watched pain flash across Kurt's eyes, so obvious to him and hidden from everyone else.

"Rachel, behave," Blaine said sternly, crossing the room in four strides and pulling her by the waist off of Finn. The baritone gave him a betrayed look. That was probably the farthest he had gotten with Rachel in a long time.

"Hey Blaine," Kurt said with a soft, still-slightly-pained smile, and God, Blaine wanted to kiss him.

"Hi," was what Blaine had to settle for, pushing Rachel back towards Mercedes and Santana. "How did your testing go?" Kurt made a face.

"They spent about two hours making me do the stupidest things imaginable and then made the official decision that there's absolutely nothing wrong with me. Jess was standing behind them, making faces and some rather crude gestures." Blaine laughed. Yeah, that sounded like Jess. "So, I'm officially healed."

"Good. Did they check out the swelling in your head?" Kurt nodded.

"Apparently it's decreasing rapidly, which is actually more worrying than relieving."

"Why?" Blaine asked, sitting down next to him.

"Because if that's the case, my memory should be returning in bits and flashes and... nothing." That was _incredibly_ disappointing, but Blaine tried not to be selfish. After all, it must be even worse for Kurt.

"I'm sorry," was all he had to say. "So, Burt and I came up with a plan-" Why could he only say Burt's name when the man wasn't in the room? Also, where was he?

"How close are you and my father, exactly?" Kurt asked curiously, and for a moment Blaine allowed himself to be proud that he had completely distracted Kurt from his conversation with Finn. Then he felt bad and selfish about his jealousy.

"I..." _Well, I talked to him about your virginity on multiple occasions, so_... "We both have your best interests at heart," was what Blaine decided to go with. He wasn't sure Kurt had _ever_ known about his conversations with Burt, and he planned to keep them to himself a little while longer. "Anyway, we thought we would start your path to normalcy by reintroducing you to your team."

"Hey, Kurt," Rachel said, stepping forward.

"Man hands," Kurt replied coolly, and Rachel visibly recoiled.

"Kurt, be nice," Mercedes said with a roll of her eyes, and Kurt almost knocked Blaine over as he jumped up and ran to hug Mercedes.

"Merce!" he squealed, grabbing her in what looked like a bone-crushing hug. "How are you?"

"Better, much better than I was when everyone was blaming me for telling everyone about the true father of the baby." Blaine could see a light bulb go off above Kurt's head, and for a moment he hoped Kurt had remembered something.

"How is... Drizzle?" he asked hesitantly, looking at Finn.

"Her name is Beth," Finn corrected him gently, trying his best to remain calm. Beth was still a sore spot between him, Puck, Quinn, and Rachel. "She was born during Regionals, and she was adopted by a loving family whose identity we don't know."

"Oh," Kurt said, and he looked embarrassed. He had forgotten about the time that had passed again. "Right. How are you?" he asked again, turning to Mercedes.

"Excellent. I've got a boyfriend-"

"Who?" Kurt practically shrieked.

"Shane Tinsley." Kurt looked at her quizzically. "He plays football. I hadn't gotten the chance to introduce him to you yet, but he's a great guy. You'll approve, I know it." Kurt nodded, accepting that at face value. "And I get along with Rachel now."

"What exactly makes you desire to always be second place to big-mouth, nose McGee-"

"So do you, bo," Mercedes interjected before Kurt could really get going on his ranting criticism of Rachel, and Kurt's jaw dropped. "Yeah, I know, but you two clicked after you came home from Dalton and especially in New York." Blaine sighed. Information overload.

"What's Dalton? When was I in New York?" Kurt asked, confused, and Mercedes looked guilty.

"Dalton is the private school you transferred to in the middle of junior year when the bullying got to be a little too much," Blaine answered the questions that weren't directed at him, and Kurt's head snapped in his direction. "You spent about a semester there, and that's where we met." Kurt smiled softly, guiltily at him. "That's where I went." No one stopped to question the past tense.

"And we were in New York," Rachel added, sitting on Kurt's empty bed, "when we went to Nationals." Kurt's jaw dropped again, and Blaine could see all the regret in his eyes. He hated that Kurt couldn't remember what had probably been one of the best years of his life. "We got twelfth place out of fifty for the two original songs that we wrote, and you and I broke into the Gershwin Theater to sing _For Good_ together. It was amazing." Rachel took Kurt's hand, and Kurt allowed it.

"We've grown apart a bit," Mercedes admitted, "but the three of us are pretty much inseparable." Mercedes took Kurt's other hand, and the three shared a little moment.

"I guess that leaves me," Santana muttered in Blaine's ear. "Why the hell did you bring me here?"

"Just go say hi," Blaine said, pushing the Cheerio towards the bed and wondering when everyone else should be introduced. Tina, Mike, Sam, Quinn, Artie, and Puck were the remaining people. No one had seen Brittany all summer. Puck and Mike would probably be the people he wanted to see the least... maybe bring in Quinn, Tina, and Artie tomorrow, and wait for the rest until he got home? Sam would be the most confusing for Kurt, because the countertenor had no memory at all of the fake blond.

"Hey, Carmen Sandiego, nice new tits," Kurt said sarcastically as Santana approached. "At least that's one change I could have predicted. What are you doing here?"

"News flash, gelfing, I'm actually tolerable now, and I'm not a spy anymore. I just tell it like it is. Problem?" Kurt scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Right. So I'm assuming you and Britt are as firmly in the closet as always?" Blaine rolled his eyes. Kurt and Santana would never really get along without a mediating factor, and that would probably have to be him.

"She's still sabotaging us," Rachel corrected, "but now she's just doing it for fun."

"Damn right. It wouldn't be so easy either, if you guys could all rein it in."

"You're one to talk."

"Hey, I'm exclusive."

"With someone whose existence you refuse to acknowledge outside of the bedroom."

"At least I remember mine," Santana snapped, and her comment was followed by complete silence. Blaine could feel Kurt's gaze on him, but he was looking determinedly at the floor.

Blaine cleared his throat once the silence became unbearable. "Santana, didn't I tell you to behave?" He looked up at the Latina, still refusing to look at... Kurt. Not even _his_ Kurt anymore.

"Didn't I tell you I don't do that well, Kermit?" she snapped in reply, but Blaine could see the guilt in her eyes. It was her automatic reaction to go for the jugular with her comments, she hadn't meant to make the atmosphere in the room any worse.

"Wow, the tension in here now is worse than the sexual tension earlier," Jess said with a grin as she stepped into the room, followed by an amused-looking Dr. Sanchez and an annoyed-looking Dr. Eastlake. Blaine was starting to think that expression of irritation was permanently stuck on his face.

Jess' comment was enough to make Kurt look away from Blaine, and had Blaine wanted to look over, he knew Kurt would be blushing. "Nurse Lewalski, could you at least attempt to be professional?" Dr. Eastlake asked coldly, but in true Jess form, the nurse ignored him.

"How are you feeling, sweet cheeks?" Blaine had a feeling she used the endearment just to irritate the attending. Judging by the little smirk on her face, she definitely had.

"I... dizzy," Kurt admitted, and Blaine's eyes, without the permission of his brain, immediately snapped to Kurt in concern, but Kurt wasn't looking at him anymore. "I just... a little nauseous too."

"Nauseated," Dr. Eastlake corrected his grammar as Dr. Sanchez came over to talk to him. Jess was leaning against the wall, looking annoyed. She and Santana exchanged a few looks that said a lot about how similar the girls were... at least, they were similar in their opinion of Dr. Eastlake. Blaine definitely agreed.

Dr. Sanchez whipped out a little light, checking his pupils before glancing at the chart she had brought in with her. "You're barely on any medications, and none of them have nausea as a common side effect. You're on solid food... have you eaten anything that might have upset your stomach?" Kurt shook his head. "The swelling in your head could be causing the nausea, but it's very unlikely."

"Mr. Hummel's blood pressure, temperature, and pulse are elevated," Dr. Eastlake commented. Blaine could see that everyone in the room was getting nervous. What could be wrong with Kurt now?

"Not to speak up with more qualified people in the room," somehow Jess managed to imply that 'more qualified' did not mean more intelligent, "but could Kurt just be overwhelmed? His body's getting back in order, if he's over-exerting himself mentally it could manifest in any number of ways."

"She has a point," Dr. Sanchez added, making Dr. Eastlake look even more annoyed. "And I can see grounds for him being overwhelmed." She looked around the room, noting the presence of the Hudson-Hummels, Blaine, Santana, Rachel, and Mercedes. "Perhaps we should put a restriction on the number of visitors he can have until the swelling is completely down." Santana did _not_ look pleased with that particular assessment.

"She's right," Burt chipped in before Dr. Eastlake could reply. "It's too much for you girls to be here while his brain's still getting back to normal. As soon as he's home, we can start working on his memory and recovery, but for now he just needs rest and the closest version of normalcy that we can give to him."

Dr. Sanchez was still checking over Kurt, checking his pupils again and annoying him by asking him more simple questions. Dr. Eastlake had stalked out of the room while Burt was talking, and Jess was leaning against the wall, watching with amusement. "Perhaps it's time for you lovely ladies to head out, Santana and people I don't know," she suggested.

"Rachel Berry and Mercedes Jones," Rachel introduced the two of them quickly, with her usual million-watt smile. She wasn't letting her disappointment show, but Blaine knew the girls must be devastated. He was too, because he didn't exactly fit into a good version of 'normalcy,' not in the time Kurt remembered.

"Fascinating," Jess said drolly.

"Come on, ladies, I'll take you home," Blaine offered, Rachel and Mercedes following him to the door immediately and Santana stopping to have a small exchange with Jess.

"Blaine." He was so well-programmed, his body whirled around at the sound of his name in that heavenly voice without his mind fully registering the fact that Kurt was talking to him. Santana rolled her eyes, and Mercedes made a whip sound. "Are you leaving?" Kurt asked shyly as Dr. Sanchez looked over his chart, her brows drawn together in either confusion, concern, or concentration.

"I... I drove the girls here, so they don't have a ride home without me." Kurt looked oddly disappointed, but he didn't stay anything further. Blaine looked to Burt for some kind of advice, but he was focused on the intern catering to his son's health. Blaine caught Finn's eyes though, and Finn winked at him.

"I'll take Mercedes and Santana home," Finn offered. "Rach and I can go to the movies or something, give Kurt some fresh air in here." Carole nodded in approval when her son looked at her for permission. Burt was still occupied with Dr. Sanchez, and Blaine caught a smidgen of disappointment on Kurt's face.

"Bye, Finn... Rach, Merce, Tana," he added once all three girls glared at him. Blaine tried to ignore how love struck his first goodbye had sounded. Kurt was in the middle of his infatuation with Finn, and it was awful.

"I think you'll be fine, Mr. Hummel," Dr. Sanchez announced. "Are you tired?" Kurt shook his head. "Do you have a headache?" Kurt shrugged, which wasn't an answer the intern looked pleased with. "I'll grab you some ibuprofen, and then I'll leave you alone."

"Burt," Carole said once her husband was finished with his concern over Kurt, "perhaps we should get some fresh air too." Burt looked about to object, but judging by Carole's expression, he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. "We'll go for a walk around the park across the street. If anything happens, Blaine will let us know right away." Blaine nodded on cue, and Carole dragged Burt out of there.

"Are they trying to get us alone?" Kurt asked Blaine once they were alone. "Because if they are, they're not very subtle about it. Very efficient, but not very subtle."

"You're one to talk," Blaine teased with a smile, and Kurt blushed.

"Am I that obvious?"

"Kurt, we all know because that, for us, is old news." Kurt sighed. "Sorry," Blaine said, coming to sit on the bed next to him. "You'll remember eventually."

"You don't know that. There's a good chance my memories will never come back."

"So we'll create new ones," Blaine said with a smile before realizing exactly how that sounded. "I mean, not specifically _us_, if that's not what you want, I just meant-"

"I get it," Kurt said with a smile. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Anything."

Before Kurt could get around to asking his question, Dr. Sanchez came in, administered Kurt's ibuprofen, and left, leaving a mildly awkward silence in her wake. How exactly was this the closest to normalcy they could get?

"How exactly did Finn go from my... infatuation to my step-brother?" Kurt asked finally, and Blaine decided that for now, some skimming was necessary. If anyone was telling Kurt about The Basement, it was Finn. It wasn't Blaine's place.

"I know you were in love with him, that you _are_ in love with him, if that's what you're skating around." Kurt's jaw dropped. "Yeah, we told each other everything," Blaine said with a soft smile.

"I have a feeling you know me way better than I know myself at this point," Kurt said dryly, having regained his composure, and Blaine chuckled.

"I always have." Kurt smiled. "Do forgive me if I get some of the details wrong, but I wasn't actually here for most of this. Shortly after you joined the Cheerios-"

"I was a _Cheerio_?" Kurt asked with shock written all over his face.

"I'll tell you that story later. Anyway, you introduced your dad and Finn's mother in the hopes that they would move in together and you would get the chance to spend more time with Finn, seeing this as the pathway to him developing mutual feelings for you. They did move in for a few weeks, but you and Finn had a falling-out-"

"What happened?" Blaine hesitated. He could end Kurt's crush on Finn forever...

"That's for Finn to tell you," he decided. "Anyway, Carole and Finn moved back out. Your parents dated for about eight months, from February to November... I guess that's nine. Anyway, a few weeks after we met-"

"How did we meet?"

"You're just full of questions today, aren't you?" Blaine teased, and Kurt looked a little bashful. "After I finish this story, I'll tell you any story you want, okay?" Kurt nodded. "Anyway, that November, your father proposed to Carole, and thanks to you and your incredibly dexterous and meticulous wedding planning, they were married two weeks later. You and Finn have been brothers for about nine months, and I'd say your little family is doing all right."

"I'm stupid," Kurt concluded, and Blaine couldn't help but laugh at that. Perhaps that hadn't been Kurt's greatest plan.

"You were in love, _are_ in love. People do crazy things when they're in love." Kurt looked at him for a moment, opening his mouth as if to say something and then closing it just as quickly. Blaine was dying to ask what he was thinking, but Kurt had enough going on. "What story do you want to hear?"

"How we met."

"Okay. So, I'm not _entirely_ sure of how this chance encounter went from your perspective, but I was walking around on a normal day, heading to an impromptu performance with Dalton Academy's a cappella show choir, the Warblers, when this incredibly cute boy tapped me on the shoulder to ask me what was going on. He was obviously a spy, dressed in a _completely_ inaccurate version of the school uniform, but he seemed pretty harmless. So, I brought him through my short-cut, half-serenaded him with the coincidentally-romantic song _Teenage Dream_, and we went out for coffee after with a few of my friends, Wes and David." Crap, he still hadn't texted the Warblers to lay off. "He told me all about the bullying he was going through at his school, and I did my best to give him advice."

"So where do I come in?" Blaine stared at Kurt for a long moment until it clicked. "Oh." Cue blush. "'Incredibly cute?'"

"I was going to say 'absolutely gorgeous,' but I didn't want to make you uncomfortable," Blaine said, half-teasing, half-serious. He wasn't sure how the comment was received.

"So, all those guys who have been texting me who have picture icons in a blue and red blazer..." Kurt said hesitantly as everything clicked together in his head.

"Those are the Warblers. I'll text them to lay off, because while they've obviously heard that you got hurt, I doubt they know what happened." Kurt nodded.

"Thank you."

"No problem. I kind of consider them my responsibility anyway."

"I thought you didn't go there anymore?" Kurt asked, clearly confused, and apparently he had been the only one who caught the past tense Blaine had used while describing his attendance at Dalton Academy.

"Well, all this summer you were trying to convince me to transfer to McKinley so we could spend more time together, and I was going to surprise you by showing up on the first day of school, but since that gesture is no longer romantic and doesn't really mean anything to you, I guess I'm free to tell you. I transferred to McKinley. I'm not sure what's going to happen with my residence, but..." Blaine shrugged. The plan that he had cleared with Burt was that he would live with the Hudson-Hummels and stay _far away_ from Kurt's bedroom, but that probably would only serve to confuse Kurt more. With his parents' money, he could always buy himself a house.

"That doesn't mean nothing to me," Kurt objected when it became clear that Blaine wasn't going to finish his sentence. "I mean... God, this is so confusing." Blaine was about to say something, but Kurt was still talking. "I have absolutely no idea why or what, but you do mean something to me, Blaine. I... I wanted you to stay." There was nothing to say to that. There really wasn't, so Blaine took Kurt's hand and squeezed it, and they sat in silence for a good ten minutes.

"Do you want to hear the story about how you joined the Cheerios?" Blaine asked eventually, just because Burt and Carole probably wouldn't be happy to come back to total, semi-awkward, heavy silence.

"Sure," Kurt said softly, not releasing Blaine's hand.

"As little as you remember, you surely know that Miss Sylvester and Mr. Schue don't exactly get along," Kurt smiled and nodded, "well, once, a week or two after Sectionals, Mr. Schue got fed up with being insulted and returned Miss Sylvester's barb about his ridiculous choice in hairstyle, insulting her hair. Apparently, her expression was devastated, because you and Mercedes went to check up on her. The assignment that week was Madonna, and you and Mercedes were working on a recreation of the _Vogue_ video. So, after she told you some ridiculous, probably completely untrue, and un-recollect-able story about the release of _True Blue_," Kurt giggled, "you asked to borrow some of the male cheerleaders in return for giving Coach Sylvester the starring role in your video and giving her a makeover. During a conversation with Principal Figgins following said makeover, she decided that instead of changing herself, she would change everyone else, and she made you and Mercedes Cheerios. You performed _4 Minutes_ at a pep rally, and you stayed on the team until Nationals, where you performed a fourteen-minute Celine Dion medley entirely in French. Mercedes quit after Puck tried to date her for her popularity because he lost his Mohawk and his mojo and... I still don't quite understand that story," Blaine admitted, and Kurt smiled.

"Sounds really fun."

"I bet it was," Blaine commented. "I don't have the videos, but I'm sure we can show you _4 Minutes_, Mercedes performing _Beautiful_ at a pep rally after Coach Sylvester tried to convince both of you to lose some weight-"

"Rude."

"I wish you had felt that way then," Blaine said with a laugh. "You also did _Fergalicious_, but that video got lost, and Santana or Brittany _might_ have a recording of your medley, but I'm not sure."

"What about Quinn?" Kurt asked.

"We... I don't know what's going on with Quinn, but she hasn't been talking to anyone all summer. Neither has Brittany, but Santana said she's on vacation somewhere." Kurt nodded.

"Poor Quinn. I don't remember much, but even I know she's been through a lot." Blaine nodded, squeezing Kurt's hand again. He could have told Kurt about Prom Queen, but there was no reason to make the mood in the room even more somber. "Do you have a video of _Teenage Dream_?" Kurt asked curiously.

"I... I bet I could scrounge one up," Blaine hedged, because he had been performing, and Kurt hadn't been recording, but there were security cameras at Dalton and they probably kept the tapes somewhere. Maybe someone had recorded it on their phone.

"How long was I at Dalton?" Kurt asked, and after taking a quick look into Kurt's eyes, he was dying to know what the countertenor was thinking.

"From mid-November 2010 to late April 2011," Blaine said automatically. "So, about six months. Why?"

"I'm trying to figure something out," Kurt said, and Blaine was finally getting the insight he so craved. "So, if we met in October and I transferred to your school in November... why have we only been dating for a little less than five months? That would be March or April, a few weeks before I left." Blaine had forgotten how astute he could be.

"That is not only a _long_ story, but also entirely my fault," Blaine admitted. "I was kind of an idiot... repeatedly."

"Eventually, you will tell me that story," Kurt said with a grin.

"Deal."

"See, Burt, Kurt hasn't randomly passed out in the last twenty minutes," Carole said as she and Burt walked back into Kurt's hospital room. Had they really been talking for twenty minutes? "Relax."

"I apologize for being concerned about my son," Burt said, but he was teasing and Carole knew it. "How are you doing, kiddo?"

"Fine," Kurt answered a little tersely. "Blaine's been telling me a lot of stories." It occurred to Blaine after a moment or two of awkward silence. Kurt and Burt's relationship hadn't always been so amazing. Maybe at the time Kurt remembers, it wasn't so great at all.

"Are you okay, Kurt?" Blaine asked softly, trying valiantly to dismiss the notion that he was running familial interference. First of all, he wasn't a part of the family, not really. He had thought that he could be for a while, but recent events were kind of ruining that rather romanticized notion. Second, Burt was perfectly capable of handling his own son.

"Fine," Kurt said, but his voice was too cold and his lips were pulled into a tight line. Not that Blaine's eyes immediately went to Kurt's lips. Not at all. "I'm just tired. Do you think I could maybe have some time to sleep?"

"Of course, sweetie," Carole said gently.

"Alone?" Kurt asked, and Blaine realized Kurt was trying to get them all out of the hospital room. With a quick look at Carole, he confirmed she was having the same thought, and they nodded to each other. Maybe Kurt just needed some time. Blaine stood up off the bed.

Burt was about to object, but Carole placed a hand on his arm. "Sure, sweetie. We'll get out of here and give you some time. Come _on_, Burt," she said as he looked about to object again, and she practically dragged Kurt's overprotective father out of there.

"Blaine," Kurt said as the tenor was following Carole and Burt out of his hospital room, and Blaine turned to look at him. "I just need some time alone," he said apologetically. "Everything's so confusing."

"I understand. So do Carole and Burt. Burt just doesn't want to leave you because he's afraid for your health." Blaine came to stand beside Kurt as they talked. "I know you'll be all right, and the sooner your head gets itself sorted out, the better you'll feel."

"Will you come back in about an hour and tell me that story?" Kurt asked.

"Shouldn't you take a longer nap than that?" Blaine asked, because the more Kurt slept, the more time his body had to sort itself out.

"I'm not taking a nap," Kurt said, and his tone betrayed a little of his guilt about lying. "I just need some time." Blaine couldn't argue. He didn't have a say anymore.

"Okay. And yes, I'll come back." Blaine stooped and pressed a kiss to Kurt's forehead, which made him blush. "I would say sweet dreams, but..." Kurt giggled.

"Bye, Blaine." Blaine resisted the urge to look back as he walked away, considering he could feel Kurt's eyes on his back. Right outside the door, Carole and Burt were waiting for him.

"Do you want to hang out at the house until you come back?" Burt asked. Carole, upon observation, was texting Finn, telling him to come home rather than go back to the hospital.

"Sounds good," Blaine replied, but he had to ask. "Mr. Hummel?" he asked as Burt and Carole started to walk away.

"Yes?" Burt replied, sounding a little gruff.

"What was your relationship with Kurt like back then?"

* * *

**A/N: Cliffhanger! Kind of. I apologize that it's been so long since I updated this story, but my life has been hectic lately. So, sorry. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.**

**Songs mentioned:  
**'_Teenage Dream_' by Katy Perry  
'_4 Minutes_' by Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake  
'_Beautiful_' by Christina Aguilera  
'_Fergalicious_' by Fergie

**Reviews are Love.**


	5. The Story

Kurt felt guilty as he watched Blaine walk out of his hospital room. Blaine was obviously trying hard to be exactly what he needed, but even Kurt didn't know what he needed at the moment. How could Blaine?

Well, Blaine definitely had a point. He obviously knew Kurt very well; he had even been able to tell when Kurt was getting upset. His life had changed so much, and all of the changes seemed to be positive, but he couldn't figure out how everything had happened and what had really changed. It was confusing and frustrating, and kind of made him want to curl up in a ball and cry.

However, curling up and crying was not the reason he had essentially kicked everyone out of his hospital room. Blaine had been the one to point out that he was seventeen now, and it had taken him a while to adjust to the extra inches he had grown. Everyone around him weren't the only people who had changed, and Santana's fake breasts had reminded him of something.

Kurt jumped at the coldness of the tile floor as he slid out of bed, disconnecting himself from the very few monitors that he still had. He almost froze when he noticed that Burt and Blaine seemed to still be outside, but Burt was talking and Blaine was focused, so he figured they wouldn't notice him not exactly napping. Plus, Blaine knew that he wasn't sleeping. Still, Kurt adjusted his blankets a little so that someone far away could be convinced that there was a body in the bed. That would have to be good enough.

Kurt relaxed once he had shut himself in the bathroom, taking a deep breath. It sucked that he couldn't remember a good chunk of his life, but he was about ninety percent sure most people would pay to forget high school. And judging by what he had seen of the life he had inherited, he was going to have a great senior year. All of his friends were getting along, the New Directions were doing much better, and he appeared to have an amazing boyfriend, even though he wasn't quite sure how he felt about Blaine. He seemed so eager for Kurt's approval, but Kurt couldn't stop himself from seeing all the wonderful things he saw in Blaine in Finn: the charm, the humor, the good nature, the goofy smile. Okay, this was ruining his fairly good mood.

Kurt took another deep breath as he faced his next challenge. He had pointedly avoided the mirror in the bathroom, because he knew seeing it was going to be like someone forcibly dipping his head in ice water, the worst shock of his life. Thankfully, the bathroom was designed to make such a task rather easy. Kurt took another deep breath, squared his shoulders, and looked in the mirror.

Kurt would have screamed, but it was like the breath was knocked out of his lungs.

He had definitely grown up. All the baby fat was gone from his face, his jaw and cheeks sharp and angular. He had filled out a little, less lithe and closer to sturdy (but still far, _far_ away). He had obviously died or highlighted his hair at some point, because it was much lighter at parts in the front, and it looked like it would style perfectly up. He had grown probably four inches, and... wow...

He was an entirely different person.

Everything about him, from his family to his cheekbones, was different.

He had no idea how this had happened.

Judging by his progress, he would probably never know.

He would never be the person he remembered.

He could never be the person everyone else remembered.

Who was he?

* * *

"What was your relationship with Kurt like back then?" Blaine had asked, and he was kind of terrified to hear the response. He knew a lot about Kurt's past, the major and minor events that made up who he was. He knew about Kurt's mother, how Carole had become part of the family, how badly Kurt had been bullied from the moment everyone figured out that he was a little bit different. His father was the one gray area, and Blaine had made an assumption that was because his father had always been wonderful and supportive, and nothing about their relationship had changed. But if he had learned anything in the last few days, it was that nothing ever stayed exactly the same.

Burt sighed, breaking the silence that had fallen on the hallway. "Strained," Burt answered. "He came out to me that September, and we were still dealing with the downfall of the fact that he was officially out to everyone in the town. We were being harassed, getting phone calls and bricks through our windows. Someone cut my brake line the day of Sectionals, and I had almost had an accident in the parking lot because of it. I came in pretty rattled, and I was quite upset with everyone. Kurt took it personally, and I never got the chance to apologize to him before he went on stage. Of course that's the last thing he remembers."

"Burt, it's not your fault," Carole said softly, coming to stand behind Burt and putting a hand on his shoulder. They really did make a good, devoted couple.

"I love my son. You know that. I was an idiot, and I know I hurt him, but after we talked about it. We figured a lot of things out. We got a lot closer, and we started making an effort to find things that both of us could tolerate. That all kind of went to hell again when I started doing guy stuff with Finn and accidentally excluding him, but... it took a lot to get to the point where every time I was angry, Kurt didn't automatically get defensive and lead every argument back to the 'you can't accept me' thing. I can't believe we're back there." Burt sounded as anguished as Blaine had felt for the last few days.

"So, Kurt still thinks you can't accept him and are mad about an incident with your brakes that happened a year and a half ago," Blaine summed up Burt's story. "Awesome."

"We should get home. Kurt will start wondering why we're still standing out here." Burt took a quick look through the tiny window, and nodded at the sight of Kurt's body in the bed. "Come on, kiddo, you'll get to see him a little bit later anyway." Burt had clearly been eavesdropping.

Blaine lagged just a little bit behind to take another look through the window. The lump in the bed, while semi-convincing, definitely wasn't big enough to be a human, or Kurt. Where was he? And why was he trying to hide his location from the people right outside the door?

Blaine sighed. It was going to be a long day, he could just feel it.

* * *

"Hey dude," Finn greeted. He and Rachel were sitting on the couch, obviously not having been at the movies, Finn trying to take advantage of the empty house and Rachel doing her best to fend off his advances. Blaine was glad Carole had called him before they had headed home. That really wasn't an image he needed burned into his corneas. "How's Kurt?"

"Fine," Blaine replied, trying not to snap at Finn. "He was feeling a little tired and a bit overwhelmed, so he asked us all to give him some space for a bit. I'm sure he'll be all right, you know how Kurt gets." Finn probably didn't, but that was beside the point. Finn certainly didn't need to know exactly how Kurt was feeling. He wasn't good enough at reading Kurt to take care of him anyway.

"You look really mad at me, dude," Finn said, but the corners of his mouth were twitching upward. He obviously understood it. "I can't help that he's crazy about me."

"I know," Blaine said with a sigh, rationality returning now that he was separated from Kurt. "And I'm sorry. I know you're as uncomfortable with this situation as I am annoyed."

"Relax, man. I know how crazy I would get if Rachel forgot about us and started being crazy about Puck or something," Finn said, being totally understanding in a way that only annoyed Blaine more. Why? Because he could completely see _why_ Kurt had fallen in love with Finn.

"Finn, I object to the idea that even in some sort of alternate reality where I had no memories, I would choose _Puckerman_ over you, Superman," Rachel said in that overly-superior voice of hers. "I was crazy about you from the day I met you." Finn got that big, goofy grin again and gave Rachel a sweet little kiss.

"You people make me sick," Blaine setting, walking into the kitchen. He was only half-kidding. He hated being around couples when he was single, especially _this_ type of single (it was a very unique form of single, but he had decided he was definitely single. Not that he wanted to date anyone else, but if he accidentally called Kurt his boyfriend, or any sort of pet name, or 'love,' for that matter, the countertenor would probably have a coronary).

"Blaine!" Rachel's obnoxious voice called out after him, and when he turned around, she was following him into the kitchen. "I'm sorry," she said demurely. "I know you must be upset about losing Kurt-"

"I haven't _lost_ Kurt," Blaine objected, and when Finn looked over, he realized he was yelling. "Look, Rachel, I know you're trying to help and all, but this situation is bad enough without you sticking your overly-large shnauze into it, all right?" Okay, that was cruel, but did he really have to tolerate her right now?

"I..." Rachel looked upset. Crap.

"I'm gonna go upstairs," he muttered, very careful not to touch her as he pushed by her back into the living room, headed for the stairs.

"Not cool, dude," Finn said clearly as he took the first few in a stride, and yeah, that wasn't. Okay, no more lashing out at people that didn't deserve it.

* * *

_"No, Blaine, we have to get to the movie on time," Kurt said with a laugh as Blaine tried to kiss him just one more time._

_ "Kurt, we have all the time in the world," Blaine teased. In reality, they had about five minutes until they absolutely had to leave to make the movie on time, but it was something Kurt always said when he was running late, so it seemed appropriate to turn his words back on him._

_ "Blaine, I am not missing Thoroughly Modern Millie because you can't keep your hands to yourself," Kurt said firmly, but Blaine could tell that he was caving. Kurt always caved when Blaine gave him the puppy dog eyes, and Blaine was turning them on him full force._

_ "Thoroughly Modern Millie will be playing all week, but I only have so much time before I have to go back to Chicago." It was the argument that always worked. It sucked that Blaine couldn't spend every moment of his summer with Kurt and that he had to spend so much time working at Six Flags, but it meant he won almost every argument about what they should do while he was home._

_ "But I want to see it with you," Kurt said with a little pout._

_ "But we can't make out during Thoroughly Modern Millie," Blaine objected with the same pout, and Kurt laughed._

_ "You are just too cute to be real," Kurt said, reaching over and kissing Blaine so thoroughly that his heart started beating out of his chest. "You know, there's a good chance that we'll be the only people in the theatre, and we can do whatever we want."_

_ "Why are we still here?" Blaine asked, grabbing Kurt's hand and pulling him out the door, making him laugh._

_ "Oh, so now you're eager?"_

* * *

Since everyone had gotten their car situation sorted out eventually (apparently he hadn't been the only New Directioneer to accidentally leave his car at the ice cream stand and then forget about it), Blaine was able to drive alone to the hospital after about half an hour of purgatory where he beat himself up for yelling at Rachel over bad phrasing. He had gone up to Kurt's room, collapsing onto Kurt's bed and curling up where it smelled like his boyfriend, ignoring how much the action made him feel like a pervert. He just missed Kurt so much, and while the boy in the hospital bed at Lima General was amazing, he wasn't the Kurt Hummel Blaine had fallen in love with. Not even close.

He had managed to grab some things that Kurt would probably want from the house, and he was pulling up to the hospital when a familiar person walked out. Jess was just leaving from her early shift as he was collecting Kurt's things out of his car. "Hey, stud, I was wondering why sweetheart's room was empty. Did you steal him?"

"Is he still not in his bed?" Blaine asked, immediately becoming concerned. If Kurt was really feeling that disoriented, he might have done something rash.

"I wouldn't be too worried about him, pudding cup. He's reacting better than most." Jess seemed in a hurry, she was wearing a nice dress and fiddling with her keys as she spoke.

"Besides, he told me to meet him back here in an hour. Maybe he thinks I'll help with his escape plan because I'm so ridiculously enamored," Blaine said with a rueful chuckle, then noticed Jess was shifting her weight from one foot to the other, a difficult feat in high heels. "Oh, for Pete's sake, Jess, go on your date."

"How... damn smart people," Jess concluded with a laugh. "I'm sure your sweetie's fine, stud," she said, running over and giving Blaine a quick kiss on the cheek before heading for her car. She certainly was a good nurse.

Blaine took a deep breath and headed into the hospital. He didn't even bother to check in before taking the now-familiar route to Kurt's room. The bed was still empty, but now more obviously so, the blankets having deflated. Blaine stepped into the room, scanning around before he noticed the closed bathroom door. Had Kurt been in there for an hour? Was he okay?

"Kurt?" he called out as he walked towards the bathroom, but there was no response. "Kurt?" he asked again, knocking on the door. He must have knocked twenty times, but he was still getting no answer. "Dammit," he muttered, as he opened the door.

Thankfully, Kurt wasn't in any kind of compromising position or unclothed, he was just standing in front of the mirror, and he appeared totally frozen. "Kurt?" Blaine asked again, gently, touching Kurt's arm. Kurt jumped about a foot, but turned to face him slowly once he had calmed down. "Have you been in here for an hour?" Kurt was facing him, and his face was wet with tears. "Are you okay?" Blaine asked stupidly.

"No," Kurt said, his voice choked and hoarse. He shook his head and then hugged Blaine, burying his face in the crook of Blaine's neck, clutching him tight and shaking.

"What's wrong, love?" Whoops. Hadn't he just been thinking about this?

"I..." Kurt shook his head some more, pulling Blaine closer and crying into his neck.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Blaine muttered, stroking a hand down Kurt's back. He hated seeing his beautiful angel upset, but it was amazing to be holding Kurt in his arms again and not have Kurt feel like a wooden board. God, he had been so scared when he thought he would never have this again. "It's okay, Kurt. Everything will be okay." Kurt was still clutching at him and crying, but he didn't know what else to do. He had absolutely no idea what was going on inside of Kurt's head.

He had no idea how long they stood there, Kurt crying and Blaine stroking his back, whispering reassurances in his ear. He was just hoping that Burt or Carole wouldn't show up and think that Kurt was crying because of something he did. As far as he knew, this wasn't his fault.

Eventually Kurt calmed down, pulling away from Blaine and trying to subtly wipe away his tears like he was embarrassed he had been crying. "I'm sorry," he said, still sounding choked up. "I just... this last few days..."

"Don't worry about it," Blaine said gently, wondering if Kurt had actually been crying in front of the mirror for an hour before he got there and suddenly feeling guilty about leaving. "That's what I'm here for."

"And I'm sorry I kicked you out," Kurt added, doing his best to dry his face with his sleeve. "I just... I knew this was something I needed to do on my own, I just didn't know how hard it would be to face exactly how different I am."

"Oh." So that's what set off the crying. He had watched Kurt grow up a lot since he had met him even, he couldn't imagine the difference from almost a year before that. "It's all right, Kurt. I'm sure this is quite a shock for you." Kurt was still acting shy, so Blaine went over to the sink, dampening a paper towel. "Everything will be all right," he said again, approaching Kurt. When he looked up, Blaine gently cleaned all of the sticky tears off his beautiful face. "Everything will be okay."

"Thank you," Kurt whispered as Blaine threw away the paper towel.

"No problem," Blaine said. "Come on, you should get out of this bathroom. I think you're making all of the nurses nervous."

"I was wondering where Jess is," Kurt admitted as Blaine led him out of the bathroom.

"Her shift actually ended," Blaine said, glad to get Kurt out of the dark, dank, depressing space of the bathroom. It was clean, but it was poorly lit, and Kurt probably shouldn't spend too much time looking in the mirror. "She went out on a date."

"Oh, good for her." Kurt actually looked genuinely happy for Jess, a small smile enough to light up his face. Kurt's hands scrubbed over his face again, and yes, he was just a little bit blotchy, but he was still too gorgeous to really exist. In Blaine's very biased opinion.

* * *

_ "I cannot believe you agreed to go on a date with me," Blaine said as they walked out of the restaurant, still flying a little bit. Kurt and he had spent the whole night together, from the moment Wes had dismissed them from Warblers practice until Dalton's curfew was looming over their heads._

_ "Blaine, I told you I would date you like a week ago, and you already kissed me goodnight... several times," Kurt said, laughing. "Besides, you know I feel the exact same way, and I have for a long time."_

_ "God, I really am an idiot, aren't I?" Blaine asked, mostly talking to himself. They had reached Blaine's Prius, but he didn't want to drive Kurt home yet. He wanted to talk to him some more. "How did I not see you're the most beautiful man on the planet?"_

_ Kurt blushed rose pink. "I think you're exaggerating a little."_

_ "Well, I'm allowed to be a little bit biased, aren't I? As your boyfriend?" Blaine asked, the word making him want to do a little victory dance._

_ "Very subtle, slipping the 'b' word in there," Kurt said, but he sounded thrilled too. "I think I'm going to need something a little more official, Mr. Anderson."_

_ "Kurt Hummel," he said immediately, sinking to one knee and making Kurt laugh._

_ "Oh dear Gaga, you crazy person, stand up. It looks like you're proposing, and it's a little early for that," Kurt teased, but Blaine didn't care. He loved seeing Kurt like this, so free and happy, so different from the day they had first met. He couldn't imagine his life without Kurt now._

_ "You are the most beautiful man I've ever met," Blaine continued as Kurt tried to grumble and fight a smile, "and I can't imagine spending another day without you. Would you do me the immense honor of being my boyfriend?"_

_ "I didn't mean that official," Kurt said, but he was smiling. "And yes, I would love to be your boyfriend." Blaine grinned, standing up and kissing Kurt softly, reveling in the fact that he could do so whenever he wanted to._

_ "Wait until we tell the Warblers," Blaine said once they had separated. "They're all going to freak out." Blaine and Kurt had decided after their first kiss that they wouldn't tell the Warblers until after Regionals because they didn't want to distract the team. Now they could, and they were all going to be so happy for them. Blaine couldn't wait to see their reactions._

_ "I can't wait," Kurt said, and they hadn't pulled away from each other, kind of hugging in the middle of the parking lot. Blaine suddenly got an idea, pulling away from Kurt a little bit, but keeping his hands around Kurt's waist. "Blaine, what-"_

_ "Oh, my love, my darling, I've hungered for your touch a long, lonely time," Blaine sang a cappella as he began to slowly spin with Kurt, slow-dancing in the middle of the parking lot. "And time goes by so slowly, and time can do so much. Are you still mine? I need your love," Blaine kept singing as he twirled Kurt, making his new boyfriend giggle._

_ "You are such a dork," Kurt said, but he was smiling, and he pulled Blaine close as they danced, not caring if people were staring at them, resting his head on Blaine's shoulder._

_ "I need your love. God speed your love to me. Lonely rivers flow to the sea, to the sea, to the open arms of the sea. Lonely rivers sigh 'wait for me, wait for me,' I'll be coming home, wait for me..."_

* * *

"Oh, I brought you some things," Blaine said, finally remembering them from where he had left them at the foot of Kurt's bed. "Your Egyptian Cotton sheets, because I'm willing to bet that you can't get any sleep on these."

"You really do know me," Kurt said with a smile as Blaine handed them over, and he immediately hugged them, rubbing his face against the soft fabric. "You do realize I'm only going to be here for another night or so."

"Yes, but hopefully, you eventually will take a nap," Blaine teased, making Kurt smile a little brighter. The blotchiness of Kurt's face was starting to recede. "And I brought you new pajamas, because you've been wearing those for almost two days, and they must be getting pretty rank." Not that Kurt had smelled bad, at all, but Blaine knew how much Kurt hated wearing the same outfit twice. Any outfit repetition was a sign of alarm in Kurt.

"Once again, you know me far too well," Kurt said, taking them and setting them on the bed.

"And I brought you a few more movies, in case you continue refusing to sleep," Blaine teased again, placing some of Kurt's favorite romantic comedies on his bed as well. "How about I re-make your bed while you get changed?"

"Um... I don't really want to go into the bathroom," Kurt said, showing vulnerability that showed he was beginning to trust Blaine again, "and while I know you've probably..." Kurt gulped, "could you maybe just..." Kurt kind of indicated a twirl.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Blaine hadn't even considered the fact that Kurt probably didn't want to go back into the bathroom. Blaine turned around and waited patiently until the rustle of fabric ended and Kurt announced he could turn back around. "Okay, I'll make your bed then?" Blaine didn't wait for an answer, placing Kurt's comforter aside gently before tearing off all of his other sheets and replacing them.

"And what do you think you're doing?" A booming voice demanded from the door, Kurt's expression at once going from vulnerable to fearful to amused, and Blaine whirled to find the source. "Those are hospital regulation sheets!" Blaine almost laughed, but he managed to keep his composure. A nurse was bearing down on him, wearing bright pink scrubs. It was funny because despite her commanding voice, she was about the least intimidating person on the planet. She was shorter than Rachel, with glasses and mousy brown hair that looked like it could use a wash, but her gray eyes were sharp and demanding.

"I was just trying to make my... the patient more comfortable," Blaine said, catching himself before he could call Kurt his boyfriend. "He's only in here for a little bump on his head, his sheets really aren't going to affect his healing."

"We have _protocol_," the tiny nurse demanded, her voice getting squeakier as she got upset. Blaine was having real trouble taking her seriously.

"It's all right, Amanda," Dr. Sanchez said from the door, and she looked exhausted. "Kurt's kind of a special case." The intern didn't specify, ushering the tiny nurse out of the room and then shutting the door, taking a deep breath before turning around. "I'm sorry about her. Not all of the nurses are as patient-focused as Jess."

"It's fine," Blaine said, returning to making the bed with Kurt's Egyptian Cotton sheets. They even felt soft under his fingers.

"How are you feeling, Kurt?" he heard the intern ask, and he saw Dr. Sanchez's hand out of the corner of his eye as he heard the telltale click of Kurt's chart being removed from the end of the bed.

"I'm actually feeling pretty good," Kurt answered, as if he had surprised even himself by saying so.

"Excellent. Your heart rate seems to have remained pretty steady, as well as your temperature. You're not getting too overwhelmed?" she asked. "Your mental health is important to us as well, Kurt."

"I'm feeling a little lost, but I'll be okay," Kurt answered, and Blaine could tell by his tone that he was being honest. Good, at least Kurt was starting to realize that everything would work out and wasn't feeling as hopeless as Blaine guessed the mirror had made him feel. He had heard of self-conscious people having some extreme reactions to themselves in the mirror, but that wasn't one of them.

"I'm glad. I'm sorry you haven't seen very many doctors in the past few days, but we have a trauma patient down the hall that's requiring out constant attention."

"Anyone who's in worse shape than I am deserves more attention," Kurt said, and Blaine's heart just about burst out of his chest. For someone who had been an only child for a good portion of his life (who still thought of himself as an only child, for that matter), and had the slightest tendency to be selfish in personal matters, it was amazing how selfless Kurt could be. He really was amazing.

"I'm glad you feel that way, and I hope your parents feel the same way. Speaking of which, where are they?" Dr. Sanchez asked, clearly having just noticed that Burt and Carole were missing from the room.

"At home. I kind of sent everybody away so that I could have a few moments to myself." Blaine felt Dr. Sanchez's eyes land on him as he was tucking in the sheets. "Blaine doesn't count."

"All right. Well, I should get back to Albert. Someone will be in to check on you later this afternoon and bring you in to see what your brain looks like, all right? If everything looks good, we'll release you tomorrow." Dr. Sanchez clipped Kurt's chart to the end of his bed again, and left the room.

"Thank you," Kurt said as Blaine switched out his pillow cases.

"It's just making a bed, Kurt," Blaine said, brushing away the unnecessary praise. "I've done this a thousand times in my life."

"I don't mean for making my bed," Kurt said, sitting down in one of the chairs that littered his bedside. "I mean for taking care of me." Blaine looked over at Kurt in surprise, but Kurt was looking at the floor. "As confused as you make me, you obviously know me well enough to know exactly what I need, even when I don't, and I have to thank you for that. I would be totally lost without you right now." Kurt cleared his throat. "And I know you may have... incentive-"

"No," Blaine objected before Kurt could finish his sentence, sitting down himself. "Kurt, look at me." Brilliantly blue eyes met his. "I don't have _incentive_. I don't want to push you in any way, even towards resuming our relationship. I'm doing this because I care about you, because I love you," Kurt blushed at that, but didn't look down again, "and because I want you to get better. No _incentive_ involved."

"I didn't mean to offend you," Kurt said gently.

"You didn't. I just wanted to make that clear." They sat their for a few minutes in silence, Kurt obviously processing and Blaine wondering what he was going to say. Eventually, the silence stretched out into the zone of awkward, and Blaine spoke up. "Why don't you try out your new bed?"

"Sounds good," Kurt said, standing up and climbing into his sheets. Kurt _moaned_ absolutely pornographically as he settled down in the bed. "Oh, _so_ much better," he said, and Blaine was trying really hard to keep his thoughts appropriate. He felt like a pervert, objectifying Kurt next to his hospital bed.

"I'm glad."

"Will you tell me that story now?" Kurt asked as Blaine moved from his chair to the end of Kurt's bed.

"What story?" Blaine had told Kurt quite a few stories, but he had forgotten the rest of the conversation. The last few days had been ridiculously crazy, and he hadn't been sleeping well either.

"The story of how we got together," Kurt said quietly, acting a little bit shy again. 'The story of how we fell in love,' Blaine was tempted to correct him, but he didn't. Kurt wasn't in love with him anymore.

"Are you sure you want to hear it?" Blaine asked, without really thinking about it first. On one hand, anything that made Kurt fall any less in love with Finn was a good thing. On the other, Kurt had been through so much lately, and if the _external_ changes were enough to send him hurtling breakneck speed towards a breakdown, Blaine wasn't sure he wanted to reveal how much he had changed inside.

"I'm sure," Kurt practically whispered.

So, Blaine told him. He told him every detail, everything he could remember that remotely involved Kurt from the moment they met until the moment Blaine had kissed him over Pavarotti's casket. He told him about Dalton and the Warblers, about Wes and David and their unique relationship, about Regionals and Sectionals, about Karofsky and Pavarotti. He didn't censor it, didn't try to stop himself from adding his personal thoughts, from making it too deep or too personal. Nothing was too personal with Kurt, especially this story. If it had been any other day, Blaine would have paused and thought, tried to incorporate the New Directions, to reconcile all the stories he had heard later with what had been happening at the time. Instead, he told _his_ story with Kurt, not the other way around. Blaine just let himself talk endlessly about everything that had happened in those months, and it was almost a way to ask Kurt for forgiveness, not just for every stupid thing he had done before he realized how in love with Kurt he was, but for telling him the story, for what had happened in the last few days, and for not being able to back off, to push his feelings for Kurt away. It was justification and confession, and by the time Blaine was wrapping up the story, his heart felt lighter.

He had been holding Kurt's hand from the start, from when he had told Kurt about Karofsky and Kurt had gone sheet white, but he had stopped watching Kurt's reactions at that point. He knew he wouldn't be able to make it through the story if he was reacting to every thought splayed out in Kurt's expressive eyes. He just wouldn't be able to do it. "... After that, we buried Pavarotti, and I told you that being with you was more important to me than any trophy in the world." Perhaps those hadn't been his exact words, but that's what he had meant. "We've been together ever since."

Blaine finally looked up to gauge Kurt's reaction, and Kurt looked absolutely flabbergasted. There was amazement in his eyes, sadness, a little bit of longing, and, Blaine was surprised to realized, fear. Fear of what, he wasn't sure, but it was definitely there. "Wow," Kurt said finally, after Blaine had spent who knows how long trying to read Kurt's eyes. "I... wow."

"I know it's a lot to take in," Blaine said gently, releasing Kurt's hand and looking away from his gaze again. "If you just... want some time to think about it-"

"Want to watch a movie?" Kurt said, and when Blaine looked up again, he was perusing the DVDs Blaine had brought from his house. "I know you think I should take a nap, but I'm not really tired." Blaine had a feeling that was a lie, but he wasn't going to fight Kurt on it. He still had no idea what was going on in the countertenor's head.

"Sure."

"Any preference?"

"I love all of those; that's why I brought them," Blaine said, only teasing a little bit and earning a smile from Kurt.

"Failure to Launch sound good?" Kurt asked.

"Sounds perfect," Blaine said, returning the smile.

* * *

Kurt and Blaine watched a few movies, until the very mousy and still very angry nurse (Blaine didn't know her name) came to collect Kurt and check out his brain, to see if the swelling had gone down and Kurt could be released tomorrow. Blaine seriously considered twiddling his thumbs until Kurt returned (even though the nurse had said it would be a few hours), but he did realize he had a few things to take care of. Some of these things could (and should) be taken care of after Kurt got out of the hospital, but one of them was urgent, possibly for Kurt's mental health.

Kurt's phone rang three times before the person on the other end of the line picked up. "_Oh thank God, Kurt, we've been freaking out-_"

"Hey, Wes."

"_Blaine! What the hell is going on in Lima? Your house has been abandoned for days, there are rumors that Kurt got seriously bashed, and now your boyfriend isn't answering his phone, and neither are you!_" Blaine hadn't even thought about his own phone. Where was it?

"Wes, Wes, calm down, okay. Kurt's fine... mostly, but he's not..." Blaine sighed. How was he supposed to put this? "He's not my boyfriend."

"_Blaine Anderson, I am a pacifist but if you did something stupid and broke that boy's heart, I will punch you in the face._" Wes' voice sounded calm but deadly. Blaine rolled his eyes, since Wes couldn't see him.

"Wes, I didn't break Kurt's heart. It's... it's complicated."

"_I wonder where my brass knuckles are_."

"Wes, he doesn't remember me."

A pause. "_Pardon?_"

"He... I've been here in Lima for the past few days, in the hospital-"

"_Oh God, what-_"

"Wes, if you don't shut up I can't tell you." Momentary silence.

"_Sorry_."

"Anyway, I'm not in the hospital. Kurt is. You're right, he was bashed, but it wasn't major, it was just... unfortunately damaging." Blaine sighed. Did he really have to tell Wes this story? He was reliving it enough already. "Somebody tripped him at an ice cream stand, and his head made contact with a wooden table." The _thunk_ it had made reverberated around in Blaine's mind. "He had some head trauma, but the swelling's gone down. The problem is the amnesia." Blaine stopped there, Wes was smart enough to put two and two together.

"_How much does he remember_?"

"The first half of his sophomore year. Before we even met." Blaine heard Wes let out a heavy breath.

"_I'm really sorry, Blaine_."

"It's all right," Blaine soothed his friend immediately. "His swelling has gone down considerably and he could be released as soon as tomorrow."

"_What about you_?"

"Wes, I'm not the one going through head trauma."

"_You're probably going through some severe heart trauma though_."

"Wes..." Blaine sighed again. "Things aren't perfect, but I'm not giving up on him."

"_I wasn't suggesting that you do_."

"I'm definitely not the priority right now."

"_I know that. Just... you can always talk to me, right?_"

"Yeah, I know." Blaine swallowed down a sudden lump in this throat. "Thanks, Wes."

"_No problem._"

"Just, do me a favor and get the Warblers to stop texting him? He doesn't remember any of us, and he's overwhelmed enough by all the changes that have been made in his life in the last year and a half."

"_Any of _us?" Wes asked with a chuckle. "_Everyone's heard the rumors, Blaine_." Wes paused for a moment. "_How true are they now?_"

"Still incredibly," Blaine replied, knowing what Wes meant, and what all of Dalton knew by now. "I told you, I'm not giving up on him."

"_You are one stubborn idiot_." Wes' sigh came across the line as a rush of static. "_I'll let the Warblers know what happened, and I'll either get them to agree to stop bothering him or steal all of their phones and lock them away. I'll probably end up having to do the latter._"

"Wouldn't shock me," Blaine said with a laugh. "Thanks, Wes."

"_No problem. Call me if you need anything_."

"You're the best."

"_I know_."

* * *

Blaine had been watching Say Anything for about forty minutes after calling Wes before Burt and Carole arrived back at the hospital. "He couldn't wait any longer," Carole mouthed at Blaine by way of apology.

"It's fine," Blaine mouthed in return. Out loud, he said, "One of the nurses took Kurt away for a scan. She said that he'll be released tomorrow if everything looks good."

"How's my son?" Burt asked, and he sounded a mixture of nervous and angry. It was an absolutely terrifying combination in him, but then again, everything seemed to be.

"He seems all right," Blaine replied, trying to ignore the fact that his mouth was drying out a little bit. "He was a little freaked out earlier, but we talked and we've watched some movies, and he seems okay."

Burt looked at him for a long moment. "Okay. I trust ya, kid." Burt gave him a rather hard pat on the back.

"Any idea when Kurt will be back, honey?" Carole asked, giving her husband the stink eye as if she knew he was being rough with Blaine.

"He's been gone for almost an hour," Blaine replied, glancing at Kurt's phone. "How long did it take last time?"

"Not too much longer than an hour," Burt answered before Carole could.

"Here's our very cooperative angel," said a cheery and familiar voice, and the nurse who walked through the door with Kurt was Jess. "Unfortunately," Jess paused, but Blaine was suspicious of where she was going with that, "we have the clearance to release him tomorrow, so I can't just have him around forever and ever." Jess gave Kurt a big hug, a quick kiss on the head, and then went over to talk to Burt about the specifics.

"How come we never see a doctor?" Burt mumbled, but it wasn't a complaint and Jess didn't answer his question.

"Hey," Kurt said with a small smile, walking over to his bed where Blaine was sitting.

"Not interested in hearing about your brain?" Blaine asked, since he had been trying to eavesdrop subtly on the conversation.

"I already got the spiel on the way back from my scan. My swelling is completely gone, none of the areas of my brain seem to be bruised beyond what will heal, which are both factors leading to my release that also make my complete lack of memory concerning."

"No flashes or vague memories?" Blaine asked, not particularly hopeful. He was one hundred percent certain Kurt would have mentioned any memory he had. Kurt shook his head and sighed. "Well, it's not the worst thing in the world if your memory doesn't come back, is it?"

"I suppose not, but it would still be nice." Kurt was looking at Blaine very pointedly. It probably had something to do with the story Blaine had told him. "I think I might take a nap."

"Don't let me get in your way," Blaine stood, returning Kurt's grin, obviously related to their earlier conversation. He glanced over at Kurt's parents and took one step closer to Kurt, grabbing his arm gently, turning them away from Burt and Carole, and lowering his voice before saying what he wanted to say next. "Promise me you're actually taking a nap." Kurt looked guilty, but Blaine just wanted to get this across. "You really scared me earlier."

"I'm sorry," Kurt whispered in reply.

"Just... promise me." Kurt nodded, but that wasn't enough. "_Kurt_."

"I promise!" Kurt said just a bit too loudly, earning them a suspicious look from Burt. "I'll take a nap, I promise," Kurt repeated. "And thank you, again, for earlier."

"No problem." If Blaine could have had _anything _in that moment, he would want the ability to just lean over and kiss Kurt without freaking him out. But he couldn't do that. So he stepped away, turned around, and walked out.

* * *

**Song used: **'_Unchained Melody_' by The Righteous Brothers


	6. The Homecoming

Rachel was still at the Hudson-Hummel household when Blaine returned from the hospital, and she was practically bouncing around the house. "Blaine!" she exclaimed eagerly as soon as he walked in the door, bouncing over to give him a hug. "Blaine, I am so sorry." Okay, clearly she didn't hold a grudge.

"Rachel, I'm sorry," he said, returning her hug. "I shouldn't have yelled at you. It's just been a few really awful days, and your personality can be... trying, and... I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she replied, releasing him. "I know I'm high maintenance, but that's one of the things many people love about me." She gave him a paparazzi-worthy smile. "And as for Kurt, when I said you'd lost him I didn't really mean that you two would never be together again. I just meant you two aren't together right now, and that Kurt's a little bit Finn-crazy, something I find completely understandable," she flashed a smile at her boyfriend, who was sitting on the couch in the living room, "and-"

"Put down the shovel, Rach," Finn said with a roll of his eyes that she luckily didn't see, standing up and coming to stand beside her. "Yelling at her wasn't cool, man, but I know you've gotta be going through a lot." Blaine just nodded. Was there a reason he was being accosted by Finchel?

"Anyway, I wanted to talk to you," Rachel said with that same bright smile she'd had since he walked in the door. "I heard you tell Kurt you _used_ to go to Dalton, and after talking to Burt, I found out about your arrangements for the next year, and I really admire such a romantic gesture."

She paused, so Blaine figured he was expected to say something. "Um, thank you?"

"You're welcome. Since living here, with Kurt so out-of-sorts and everything kind of crazy, might not be the best idea, but I definitely want you to be a part of the New Directions next year..." she was so wonderfully self-centered, "I wanted to extend to you an official invitation to live at the Berry household." Even Finn looked surprised. Clearly Rachel hadn't run this particular whirlwind of crazy by him yet.

"Rachel," oh, how did he put this? "that's very sweet, but I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next few weeks of summer as far as Kurt and I and my plans to come to McKinley go, so would you mind terribly if I put that offer on hold?" He might even end up back at Dalton, but he certainly didn't want to break her heart.

Her face fell momentarily. Looked like his plan hadn't worked. "Of course not," she said after a pause, her smile returning full force. "I just wanted to offer the hand of hospitality, and if you choose to slap it away, it's your decision." She then stormed out of the kitchen with a dramatic huff and stomp.

"Rachel-"

"Don't bother, dude," Finn interrupted him. "Once she's gone full-crazy, there's really no way to calm her down but time." Finn hesitated, as if he was thinking something through. "Or you could try to make out with her. That always works for me." Another pause. "I would really rather you didn't do that again."

"As would I," Blaine said with a smile. Unbelievably, that party with the New Directions could actually be considered happier times at this point. "Once was quite enough."

"How's my little bro?" Finn asked, clearly reaching for a new topic. Subtly really didn't run in the Hudson-Hummel bloodline, did it?

"He's excellent. His brain is close enough to normal that he doesn't require observation anymore, so they're releasing him tomorrow. He's getting some rest now, and I think Burt and Carole are just talking to the doctor." Well, technically, they were talking to Jess, but she seemed better informed than everyone else in the hospital he had met.

"Awesome," Finn said with a relieved grin. He then gave Blaine a strange up-and-down. "Maybe you should get some rest too, dude." That was all Finn said, but it spoke volumes. If Finn had noticed he wasn't feeling so good, he must look like absolute hell.

"Yeah. Thanks Finn." Finn clapped him on the shoulder in a very manly, heterosexual way, and then walked off towards the kitchen to follow his crazy girlfriend. Blaine took a deep breath and trudged up the stairs, ready to collapse on Kurt's bed. He hadn't been able to take a nap earlier, when he knew he was going to have to head back to the hospital soon and he certainly didn't want to be late. Now that Kurt was okay and hopefully sleeping, Blaine realized exactly how bone tired he was. He hadn't been sleeping well or terribly much during the last couple of days, the best he had slept was after he fainted. He would need to be back in the hospital early the next morning for Kurt's release, but he could get some sleep until then.

* * *

_ "Hey," Kurt said softly, knocking on Blaine's door after their disastrous trip to the Gap_._ "How are you holding up?"_

_ "Well, I feel a little bit like I've been through that episode of Supernatural with Brick Holmes, and my heart was actually ripped out of my chest. Not cut, not hacked, just __ripped__," Blaine said with a long sigh, not looking at his best friend but staring at a stupid Valentine's Day card that he had planned to give to Jeremiah if things had gone well. "Do you know what that feels like?"_

_ "Better than you'd think," Kurt said, and Blaine could tell by his tone that he was grimacing. The countertenor sat down on Blaine's bed, not being pushy, but just waiting for Blaine's to talk. When Blaine didn't, Kurt sighed. "I am sorry. About Jeremiah. He's an idiot."_

_ "No, he's an overage closet case. __I'm__ the idiot. I can't believe I was so crazy about someone that I hardly knew." Blaine groaned, throwing his head back against the headrest of his chair. Heartache couldn't get worse than this._

_ "Blaine, it's easy to make up a relationship in your head. I've done it, believe me." Something about Kurt's tone was off, but Blaine couldn't figure out what he meant, or what he was hiding. "Sometimes you can be completely convinced that a gesture, even a tiny one, is indicative of feelings that aren't really there, even something so simple you wouldn't notice it in anyone you weren't already falling for." Okay, that was __way__ too specific not to be pointed._

_ "Are you all right, Kurt?" Blaine asked, finally spinning his chair towards his bed, where Kurt was sitting and looking very stubbornly at the ground._

_ "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." Kurt looked up at him, his smile not entirely reaching his eyes. "Like I said, I've definitely made up a relationship in my head."_

_ "With whom?" Blaine asked, because it didn't really sound like Kurt was talking in the past tense, considering how specific he was being without giving anything away._

_ "It doesn't matter," Kurt said, rolling his eyes, supposedly at himself. "Are you sure you're okay?"_

_ "I'm fine. Are you?" Blaine asked with a raised eyebrow, but Kurt just shook his head._

_ "I'm glad you're feeling better." Kurt stood up, leaned down close enough to give Blaine a kiss on the cheek, and exited the room._

_ A minute later, he came back in, not wearing his school uniform, but the black outfit he had worn the day he sang 'Blackbird,' and it was a different memory. Kurt sat down on Blaine's lap and kissed him softly on the lips, in that relieved and awed way their first kisses had been. "Hi," Kurt said brightly, and Blaine wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's waist, snuggling into Kurt's neck._

_ "Hello," he said, just as casually. "Ready for Regionals?"_

_ "Ready to crush the New Directions," Kurt said with a lot of bravado that Blaine knew wasn't real. "Ready to sing my first solo with my amazing, slightly-secret boyfriend." Kurt still sounded in awe saying the word, and Blaine didn't blame him. Everything seemed surreal._

_ "That's what you should be saying to Wes," Blaine said with a chuckle, pressing a kiss against the curve of Kurt's neck._

_ "I don't think you want me singing a duet with Wes," Kurt said with a smile, obviously teasing Blaine about his ambiguous statement._

_ "You know what I mean, and __I__ know you secretly want your old friends to win and go to Nationals. Especially since it's in New York and that's Rachel's future home."_

_ "You know me too well," Kurt said accusingly, but he also sounded extremely happy about it._

_ "You know me better," Blaine countered, giving Kurt a kiss and still marveling that he could do so whenever he wanted to. Well, not quite whenever he wanted to, but they would tell the Warblers right after Regionals. They could make a big deal about it then._

_ "I'm crazy about you," Kurt whispered in reply, leaning forward to prolong and deepen the kiss. Blaine smiled and kissed him in return. He knew that was the closest to 'I love you' they would get for a long time, but it was better than anything he had ever imagined before, and that was enough._

_ "I'm crazy about you too," he muttered against Kurt's lips before they both stopped talking._

* * *

Blaine awoke from his dreams about Kurt (jumbles of memories, from the day they first met all the way to days before the accident) to a knock on his door. When he murmured something that must have been taken as 'come in,' he was surprised to see Carole was the one waking him up.

"Hey, sweetheart," she said with a smile, not commenting on his choice of sleeping arrangements. They _did_ have a guest room in the Hudson-Hummel house, which is where he was going to stay when he lived there, and where he had stayed when he came to visit Kurt and Kurt's parents (usually Carole) insisted he stay because it was too late for him to drive the two hours home to Dalton. The guest room felt too empty, though, and this bed smelled like Kurt. "We were going to have a little pancake breakfast before we go to pick up Kurt. He'll be released in an hour, and we have pancakes downstairs already. Will you be joining us?" Carole was the perfect, loving mother-figure, and Blaine couldn't say no to her.

"I'll be right down," Blaine said, resolving to shower before he came down. Not that Finn would have the same courtesy, but he was probably pretty rank (considering he hadn't showered for two days and hadn't changed clothes either).

"Here," Carole said, walking into the room, "are some of Finn's clothes from when he was a little younger. They've been in boxes in the basement forever, but since they were before his growth spurt, they should probably fit you." Carole wasn't being mean or teasing him, she was honestly just concerned that he was comfortable. She had probably dug through a ton of boxes to find these, it was just the kind of thing that she did.

"Thank you so much," Blaine said, sliding out of bed and glad he had decided to sleep in his jeans and t-shirt. Otherwise, he would have to say hidden under the covers until Carole left.

"No problem, sweetie. Get ready and come down, I'll make sure that Finn doesn't eat all of the pancakes before you get out of the shower... and maybe even manage to convince him to get _in_ the shower," Carole said with a sparkle of humor in her eyes.

"Thank you, Carole," Blaine said again as he picked up the clothes and headed for Kurt's in-suite bedroom. The countertenor had definitely chosen the better of the three bedrooms (not that Finn would ever want to fight him for it. The more Kurt stayed out of the communal bathroom, the better. He took _forever_, and Blaine was positive that was something that had been a life-long trait).

True to her word, there were plenty of pancakes left for Blaine, even though everyone else had already eaten, and he could hear Finn singing The Doors' _L.A. Woman_ in the shower as he walked by. Blaine's appetite was next to nothing, but under the watchful eye of a concerned mother (the fact that she wasn't _his_ mother was beside the point), he ate two fully loaded pancakes. He couldn't wait to get Kurt out of the hospital, and when he had finished his pancakes, they headed straight off. Finn was still barely awake (despite the shower), and because he obviously didn't make good decisions when he was tired, he opted not to bring Rachel, who was insistently texting him and trying to join the pick-up party.

Blaine was half-expecting to see Kurt bouncing on the bed out of sheer excitement because he was getting out of the hospital that morning (Blaine knew how much Kurt hated hospitals, and even though this wasn't the Kurt he knew, he doubted that had changed). What he _didn't_ expect to see was Kurt sitting on the edge of the bed arguing with Jess, who was standing at the end of Kurt's hospital bed and had her hands on the back of a wheelchair.

"You have to use the chair," Jess was arguing as the family walked in. "It's hospital policy."

"Because you _always_ adhere to hospital policy," Kurt said, gesturing to his clothes and his bedsheets. Wearing a gown and using regulation sheets were also a part of hospital policy.

"Yes, but I only break the rules when I know there will be no patient ramifications and it will help make them more comfortable. But if you fall and hit your head while walking out of here, you could die, Kurt," Jess said flatly, making Blaine's heart skip a beat. Or six. That wasn't something he had ever considered, but even though Kurt was fit to leave the hospital, he was still fragile. He was still in danger.

Kurt, however, didn't seem to share his concerns. "I'm not using the chair, and I'm sure my family won't sue the hospital if I don't." That was an angle Jess hadn't even mentioned, but Blaine was sure she honestly didn't care what happened to the hospital. Just what happened to Kurt.

"Kurt Hummel, if you refuse to get in that wheelchair, I will make one of these two _carry_ you out of here," Burt said firmly, butting into the conversation. It was amazing that Kurt _didn't _fall and hit his head, that was how fast he moved to get out of his bed and into the wheelchair. He hated being carried.

"You don't have to threaten, you know," Kurt grumbled from his new spot in the wheelchair. Jess gave him a victorious smirk.

"You guys should probably clean out the room, gather up his sheets and things. I'll grab a pair of hospital regulation sheets, and it'll be like no one ever broke hospital polity." Jess went off to do just that, and Blaine began stripping the sheets off Kurt's bed as the countertenor glared at his father.

"I would have been just fine without this wheelchair," he objected once again.

"And you would be just fine without the high heeled boots I bought you from your Christmas list as a welcome home gift." Kurt quieted immediately. Burt really knew how to run his son. "But I think I'll give them to you anyway," Burt added, making Kurt smile. Blaine knew that the father and son still needed to talk (_everyone_ still needed to talk really), but the first priority was getting Kurt out of the one place he hated the most. Except maybe the McKinley parking lot dumpster.

"You look awake," Kurt said, a hint of teasing in his voice. At first, Blaine thought Kurt was talking to him, but turning around made his stomach churn. Kurt was looking up at Finn (who was still dead on his feet) with those ridiculous lovelorn eyes of his. Blaine missed when those were pointed in his direction.

"It's early," was all Finn said in reply, and it was probably so early for Finn that the big idiot didn't even realize that Kurt was flirting with him. Apparently, it was also too early for him to be at all helpful in picking up Kurt's room.

"One pair of butt ugly sheets," Jess said disdainfully as she put hospital regulation sheets on the ground near Kurt's bed. "Seriously, patients pay so much for these rooms, they could at least have interesting sheets."

"Until you realize every teenage male would complain if they had flowered sheets," Burt pointed out gruffly as he untied the balloons from Kurt's bed.

"Touché. People suck," Jess said as she scoped out the rest of the room, briefly ducking into the bathroom to check that he hadn't left anything in there. "Well, if looks like you're golden, sweetie, once your devoted bitch finishes re-sheeting your bed." Kurt was gazing at the unhelpful Finn so dreamily that he not only didn't hear what Jess called Blaine, he also didn't seem to register the fact that Jess was talking. "Wow. Okay then," Jess said when she got no reply or reaction. "I'll miss you too."

"What?" Kurt said, his head finally swiveling towards Jess. "Come on, Jess, you know how much I'll miss you." Kurt wasn't lying, or trying to appease Jess. She was the kind of bright and bubbly person that could make any hospital patient feel better just by walking into a room, and she cared more about the patient's comfort than the pointless fine-print of hospital regulation. She was the perfect nurse.

"Yeah, I know," Jess said with a grin. "I really will miss you, sweetie." She walked over to where Kurt was staying very patiently in his wheelchair and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Hopefully I'll see you for your check-ups."

"Check-ups?" Burt and Kurt asked at the same time, but they were all thinking it. No one had mentioned anything about check-ups.

"Weekly until we deem that your head is perfectly normal. Plus, they're kind of curious about your amnesia. Normally memory loss is triggered by physical injury coupled with trauma. You seem to be missing a piece." Kurt looked down at the floor for just a second before looking back up. His whole life had been somewhat traumatizing, but Jess couldn't possibly know that. "But your check-ups won't be here. They'll be with some neurologist in an office. You'll get a call soon, I promise." That was Jess' dismissal, and everyone knew it.

"Come on, kiddo, let's go home," Burt said, taking the handles of Kurt's wheelchair and gently steering him out of the room. Finn followed, still half asleep, and Carole was rolling her eyes at her husband's antics. Burt was acting like a little kid, making airplane noises and driving Kurt in zig-zags. Stress, lack of sleep (probably), or an attempt to lighten the mood. Either way, Kurt didn't seem nearly as amused as his father was.

"Hold up, squirt," Jess said, grabbing his arm before he could follow the Hudson-Hummel family out of the hospital. "I know you love him and everything, but don't be his bitch, especially because he doesn't remember you. That's not healthy."

"I'm not allowed to spoil my boyfriend?" Blaine asked with a raised eyebrow, just a touch annoyed that Jess was inserting herself into his relationship with Kurt. Not that it was really a relationship, but it could be the foundation of one if Blaine was lucky.

"Spoiling him with flowers and chocolates and… do guys like jewelry as presents?" Jess wondered for a moment. "Anyway, spoiling him and being his slave are two different things. I know I stressed that Kurt's still fragile, and he is, but you don't have to treat him like a child either. All it will do is annoy him. It's not like he seems to expect much out of guys, especially because he seems to be crazy about his step-brother." Either Jess was eavesdropping or she was remarkably intuitive… or Kurt wasn't the least bit subtle. It could be that. "Just… have a little bit of self-respect, okay? Believe it or not, guys actually like that." Jess ducked to give him a kiss on the cheek and then raced off to the nurses station before Blaine could come up with a suitable reply.

It wasn't that he didn't respect himself, and it wasn't that he was hoping his actions would make Kurt fall back in love with him. He was just trying to help Kurt get better by any means necessary, and he shouldn't be overexerting himself. Or exerting himself at all, in Blaine's opinion. And their… Blaine still hesitated to call it a 'relationship,' wasn't that healthy, but that was definitely one of the healthiest aspects.

Wasn't it?

* * *

Kurt didn't exactly seem radiantly happy when they got back to the house, and it took Blaine a second to remember why. The house they were headed to wasn't the one that he remembered, just augmenting how much his life had changed. Blaine was in the very, very back, sitting behind an oddly-silent Kurt and a now-asleep Finn, but even he could tell that Kurt wasn't faring well with all of the change. He was pale, paler than Blaine thought he should be, and he was leaning his head against the window, like it was too heavy to hold up. Poor Kurt.

"We're here, kiddo," Burt said as he pulled in front of the house that was so familiar to the rest of them, and Kurt didn't recognize at all.

"We moved?" he asked, surprisingly subdued, and Burt and Carole exchanged glances. They obviously hadn't thought about this as change. There was so much that was going to be extreme change for Kurt that was now everyday experience for them. For all of them.

"Yes, after we got married we decided that with you and Finn sharing the basement, it was a little cramped for us in the old house," Carole said as gently as possible. The time Kurt remembered was even before he had introduced them, before he had hatched the wild plot to have him and Finn live together.

"Did you bring over everything?" Kurt asked, his voice still too dull for the lively boy Blaine had fallen in love with, like he couldn't bear the thought of living without some of the ridiculous items that he said had been in his old basement.

"Most everything," Burt said as he unlocked the car and Finn hopped out.

"They brought over the dresser, if that's what you're asking," Blaine whispered in Kurt's ear before the countertenor could hop out of the car, and that earned him a brief smile. Kurt had once told him that he felt more connected to his mom near that dresser than he did when he visited her grave (and he did that quite often). Kurt still seemed upset and uncomfortable though. Blaine couldn't blame him.

"Are you tired honey?" Carole asked as Blaine was clambering out of the back of the car (it probably wasn't his most graceful moment, but thankfully Kurt wasn't looking), and Burt was unlocking the house, trying several different keys (Burt was exhausted. They probably all were).

"A little." They all entered the house, Kurt looking around like a deer in the headlights. Both the house Kurt remembered and the house Kurt lived in now were beautiful, but they weren't very similar at all. Kurt didn't have his basement anymore, his exercise equipment was in the unfinished basement in this house, and his in-suite bathroom was considerably smaller. Still usable, but definitely smaller.

"Maybe you should go up to your room and get some sleep." Burt had put all of the presents Kurt had received from the New Directions in the living room, to be dealt with later, and Carole was taking his sheets and other pair of pajamas from Blaine to put in the wash. "Maybe sleeping in your own bed will do you some good." But it wasn't the bed he wanted, the bed he remembered. Kurt's bed in this new house was bigger and maybe a little more comfortable (Blaine had never been in the other bed, after all. He had never even seen Kurt's old basement with his own eyes), but it wasn't the bed Kurt would feel the most comfortable in. Not even close.

Burt was heading off to the shop (he hadn't been working for the past few days, but that wasn't exactly smart, and now that Kurt was at home and Burt knew he was okay, he should be working), Finn was going back to bed (and ignoring the insistent texts from his girlfriend, who was probably still annoyed), Carole was heading down to the basement to do that laundry (she normally did Finn's, and Kurt normally did his own, but Kurt had no idea where everything was and he didn't know how finicky the machine was. At least, those were her arguments as she walked down the stairs to the basement), and Kurt looked completely lost.

"Your bedroom is upstairs," Blaine said gently, realizing exactly why Kurt was so confused. "Come on. I'll show you." Kurt was dragging his feet as he headed for the staircase (he knew where that was only because they had passed it on the way in), and Blaine knew he didn't want to see how much his life had changed. The staircase epitomized that change. No longer covered in the drawings of Kurt's childhood, and a few candid photos of Burt and Kurt, it was now covered in family photos that included Carole and Finn. There were pictures from that summer, and some from the wedding, and even one from Finn's championship football game that included Blaine. They were a little family now (even him, sometimes), and Kurt didn't really feel a part of it, even though they considered him one.

Kurt probably realized he didn't now what direction to turn in once he reached the top of the stairs and he just stopped in his tracks, so Blaine slid out from behind him and opened the first door on the left. "This is your room," Blaine said, the narration probably a little unnecessary. "You still have a bathroom, and you decorated it. Seem… okay?" It was a stupid question. The room was completely unfamiliar to Kurt, he was apathetic about it at best.

"I didn't decorate it," Kurt corrected absentmindedly as he looked around. "Someone I've never even met did." It wasn't as pristinely white and gray as Kurt's old basement, but it still looked like him to Blaine. Maybe he was just used to it.

"You should get some sleep," Blaine said, gesturing to the bed unnecessarily. "We'll have lunch in a few hours." Blaine didn't mean to add the silent 'and we'll figure out what to do with you then,' on the end of the sentence, but he knew they both heard it.

"So this is where the magic happens, huh?" Kurt muttered as he cuddled into bed… then he froze for a second. "Proverbial magic. Right?"

"Right. Goodnight, Kurt."

* * *

_"Where are we going?" Blaine asked on what must have been their hundredth date as Kurt opened the driver's side door for him._

_ "Inside. My parents aren't home." They were the words Blaine had been waiting to hear for a long time, but now that he was hearing them, he was wary. Yes, Kurt was gorgeous, and admittedly the kissing goodnight had moved from the doorstep to the car because it had gotten steamy, and it had the tendency to literally steam up the car windows, but that didn't mean they had to go inside. "I thought we could watch a movie."_

_ Blaine smiled. He had forgotten, for just a second, how innocent Kurt was, how he wouldn't immediately think that Blaine would think that those words meant… what Blaine had thought those words meant. He was Kurt. "Yeah, that sounds great," he said, allowing Kurt to take his hand and pull him out of his Prius._

_ "How about __Say Anything__?" Kurt was asking as they walked inside. "Or __Pretty in Pink__. Or __How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days__. Or __27 Dresses__," Kurt continued talking as he unlocked the door, directed Blaine over to the couch, pulled out the popcorn (Smartfood, because Kurt was always so health conscious in his junk food habits), and sat down on the couch himself._

_ "I'm fine with whatever you want to watch," Blaine said happily, wrapping an arm around Kurt and smiling when his boyfriend cuddled into his side._

_ "Then we're watching __Say Anything__." Which really didn't surprise Blaine at all. He was __also__ not surprised by the fact that the DVD was already in Kurt's DVD player, and all he had to do was press play. _

_ They were only about five minutes into the movie when Kurt snuggled a little closer to him, pressing a kiss to where his shoulder met his neck. "I love cuddling with you," Kurt muttered, sighing in contentment and closing his eyes. He stayed like that for so long that Blaine was almost convinced he was asleep, when Kurt's brilliant blue eyes opened back up. "Hi."_

_ "Hi," Blaine said in reply, leaning down to give his boyfriend a soft kiss. Kurt shifted a little so that he could kiss Blaine in return, the angle slightly awkward but worth it. Blaine deepened the kiss and Kurt let out a little moan, shifting so that he was more upright, straddling Blaine's lap and letting his hands rest on Blaine's shoulders…_

* * *

Blaine found absolutely nothing interesting about the movie Say Anything without Kurt there to distract him. Yes, the story line was cute and semi-original, and there was a good song at the end, but it wasn't worth the hour and forty minutes it took to watch it unless Kurt was in his lap.

Or straddling it.

Either worked.

Preferably the latter.

However, he had nothing better to do while he waited for Kurt to wake up and for them to have lunch. Carole was cleaning, Burt was at work, and Finn was _still _sleeping (Blaine had never slept for that long. Ever). Musing about the first time his relationship with Kurt had gotten too steamy even for the car and they'd had to cool down, was really his only option. As long as he didn't let his imagination wander too much. That could end… inappropriately. More so than it had in real life.

Well, there was one thing he could do, but he really didn't want to.

The phone rang six times. It took three rings for his father's phone to register the call. That means for a grand total of about twenty seconds, Michael Anderson considered not picking up. However he eventually did. "_Blaine_."

"Dad." The last time Blaine had accidentally called him 'Michael' when addressed as such hadn't ended well. For anyone involved.

"_Where have you been?_" Oh look. He had noticed that Blaine was gone.

"With Kurt." That was his standard answer. He was always with Kurt. He had barely left Kurt's side since they had met, with the exception of the times they had gone to separate schools.

"_Of course._" That tone meant that Blaine could say whatever he wanted as long as Michael could hang up soon, because he really didn't feel like talking to his son. It was a tone Blaine knew well.

"I'm transferring to McKinley." Technically, he had already announced this to everyone else, and had talked about it (sporadically and painfully) with his parents, but this was his official decision. No matter what happened over the next few weeks, or months, or years, whether or not Kurt's memory came back, he wanted to be with his boyfriend. He loved Kurt.

"_And?_" Somehow, Blaine had stopped hearing his dad's voice and started hearing Jafar's. Funny how that happened.

"I just thought you should know. You'll have to contact the school and withdraw my acceptance for next year." Technically, Dalton students were re-enrolled every year, compared with transfer students, their grades and activities from Dalton included in the decision of whether or not they would be returning the next year. There was a cap for every class. Realistically, the admissions office kept almost all of the Dalton students (unless they had been on the verge of failing or had been in a lot of trouble in the last year or something), and added transfers until they hit the cap. But Blaine had to go through the process anyway.

"_I'm sure you'll make a transfer very happy._" That was the end of the conversation. His father hung up.

Blaine held his phone in his hands for a few seconds, wondering if he had made the right decision. He wasn't Kurt's slave, like Jess had accused him of being, but he wasn't being very independent either. He wanted to be with Kurt, he just didn't know how that was going to happen. And Blaine put his phone down on the end table, returning to the very boring DVD of Say Anything, convinced that going to McKinley was the correct first step.

* * *

Kurt almost looked like himself again as he came down the stairs. He was wearing his regular kind of clothes (though they looked a little last season, and the shirt was kind of short. Kurt was obviously wearing what had been high fashion at the last point he could remember, and had some fashion catch-up to do. Mercedes would be more than willing to help. Blaine would try to gently bring that up once he wasn't distracted by the flash of Kurt's stomach that he could see with every step), had moisturized, and had flipped his hair up the way Blaine was accustomed to seeing it, obviously having figured out what the subtle highlights were for. Except for the fear in his eyes, the overly-short shirt, and the uncomfortable set of his shoulders, he looked exactly like the boy Blaine had fallen in love with.

"I made grilled cheese," Carole announced as she served it up. Burt had come home for his lunch hour, and Finn had finally stopped sleeping (though he didn't look quite as gorgeous or as put-together as Kurt did).

"Thank you, Carole," Kurt said stiffly as he sat down. He wasn't exactly accustomed to having a step-mother either. It had been a rough couple of days for him.

"So, there's really only one question we have to answer," Burt said after a few moments of incredibly awkward silence. "Will you be going back to school in the fall?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Finn asked, and as much as Blaine hated to admit it, he kind of had a point.

"Because he doesn't remember anything," Burt said, readjusting his baseball cap, and nobody said anything further. That wasn't something any of them had thought about yet.

"Technically, that's not true," Rachel said as she walked into the house with a backpack over her shoulders, and how the hell had she gotten in? "Kurt has no episodic memory, which means he doesn't remember anything that's happened. However, generic memory, the things you memorize, are different. Kurt, tell me your locker combination."

"15-33-47," Kurt said without blinking and then froze. "How…?"

"That's your locker combination from this year. You would never have learned it before you… before Sectionals sophomore year." Rachel also had a point.

"Then why didn't he remember his computer password?" Blaine remembered, glad he wasn't the only one in the room without a point to make.

"Maybe it wasn't something he bothered memorizing. Maybe he wrote it down somewhere." Rachel shrugged. "Maybe he just forgot. Kurt, what's the sixteenth amendment?"

"The right of the government to levy an income tax," Kurt answered, still looking kind of shocked. "How?"

"U.S. History. You took it this year, and anything you memorized was stored in your generic memory. You should remember most of your schoolwork, though you might want to review a little."

"I can catch you up," Blaine offered.

"Blaine, you're a year behind him. That doesn't make any sense," Rachel said, and Blaine kind of wanted to smack her.

"We take classes in a different order at Dalton. I was in most of Kurt's classes last year because he was in mostly sophomore classes. I learned exactly the curriculum he learned." Ha. Ha ha ha. Ha. Blaine wouldn't laugh childishly, but he was tempted to.

"And we," Rachel gestured between Finn and herself, "learned the curriculum he was _supposed_ to learn, had it not been for… other unfortunate circumstances," she edited herself.

"Finn and Blaine can catch Kurt up. We'll talk to the school guidance counselor," Kurt, Finn, and Rachel all groaned; apparently not much had changed about Emma Pillsbury, "and if she thinks Kurt is ready to go at the end of the summer, he can go back to school."

"There's more than just the academic portion to consider," Rachel said, and it looked like she was starting to pull a flow chart out of her backpack. "Kurt is unaware of current events, both in the world and locally, has no idea what's going on in his social life, missed out on a year of music-"

"Probably not," Blaine interjected just to stop her. "Kurt memorizes song lyrics faster than anything else. I bet the moment he hears quite a few of the songs from the last year, he'll remember them."

"Touché," Rachel acknowledged. "Still, that's a lot of works for a few weeks."

"Rach, Blaine and I got this," Finn said as he finished his third grilled cheese sandwich, still a little sleepy.

"Fine. Have it your way." Rachel stormed out, and Blaine knew she had gone full-crazy again.

* * *

**A/N: I apologize this (fairly medium) chapter took so long, but this chapter was grueling. I was trying to make it interesting, but I still think it's not the best chapter. Don't worry, next chapter will be *much* more interesting… and hopefully much sooner.**

**Songs mentioned:  
**'_L.A. Woman_' by the Doors

**Reviews are Love.**


	7. The Review

"Academic, social, or musical?" Blaine asked as Finn was searching the house for the books he had never opened for junior year. "Where do you want to start?"

"Well, I'm guessing the drama in the New Directions hasn't lessened..."

"If anything, it's gotten worse," Blaine interjected, because he hadn't been able to believe the amount of drama the New Directions had. The Warblers were way calmer. Then again, there were girls involved.

"And I'm getting enough headaches without adding any bursts of lyric memory to my poor head, so, I can't believe I'm saying this, but academics." Blaine chuckled. Kurt didn't actually hate school as much as he pretended to.

"All right. I guess we have to wait for Finn then." The boy in question was upstairs, and judging by the stomping above them, he was searching through his mess of a room. They had some time. "I was thinking about inviting Mercedes over tomorrow."

"Oh?" Kurt asked, trying to hide his excitement the way he did around people he didn't really trust. Blaine ignored how much the idea of Kurt not trusting him hurt.

"Yeah. No offense to your outfit, but I thought you could use some fashion catch-up, and neither I nor Finn could help you with that." Kurt laughed. God, he was pretty.

"Yeah, I think I could use some help navigating my new wardrobe. How much did I grow exactly?" Kurt was wearing one of his formerly-knee-length sweaters, which now came down to a little less than mid-thigh.

"Probably about four inches," Blaine replied with a laugh. "Plus, some shopping and familiar company could be nice. A little less... stressful."

Kurt stared at him for a long moment, like he was looking for something on his face, then he smiled. "I can see why I dated you."

"Oh?" Blaine asked, his heart skipping a few beats.

"You always know exactly what to say and do to make me feel better," Kurt said with a little smile.

"Was kind of my job," Blaine said, trying to ignore the sudden lump in his throat.

"I forgot that I haven't-"

"Found them!" Finn announced triumphantly as he carried some books down the stairs in his arms. The idea to stack them and then brace the stack between his arms hadn't occurred to him, so he dropped one every so often, and Blaine clenched his fists as he watched Kurt check out Finn's ass every time he leaned over to pick one up. "Please tell me we're doing this now."

"We are," Kurt said, those damn heart eyes pointed up at Finn again. Even if Kurt had decided against it earlier, he probably would have changed his mind at exactly that moment.

"Awesome. What should we start with?" Finn asked, turning towards Blaine with that stupidly-charming smile. Damn. He kept forgetting that he really couldn't blame Finn for the fact that Kurt liked him.

"Maybe English?" Blaine asked, grabbing a text book about literature out of Finn's arms as Finn sat down on the couch, jolting Blaine about. Kurt, subtle as always, rolled a little bit into Finn as the couch dipped, then blushed and apologized. Even when Kurt was literally in between them, he was closer to Finn. "It doesn't involve a lot of memorization, and he's probably going to need a lot of review in it."

"Sounds good. I kind of pay attention in English." Blaine sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon.

* * *

It was weird to think that this little unconventional family had worked so well, even though Kurt had really been the bonding agent between all of were like a well-oiled machine, Blaine and Finn completing each others' sentences and Carole turning on the vacuum only during lulls in conversation. It was weird to think that he had once been part of it. That he had caused it.

"I think that's enough for today," Blaine said once he had finished his quick summaries of plot and literary merit of each of the books on both Dalton's and McKinley's curricula. "His head has to be about ready to explode." Kurt didn't actually have a headache, but Blaine was right. It did feel a little like information overload.

"I'm good with that," Finn said, and they had significant eye contact for a moment. "I should go call Rachel and see if she's still full-crazy." Finn rushed out of the room like the way he had run away when he thought Kurt was about to ask him out, and the memory made Kurt's cheeks burn. Finn could be sweet, but he could also be an idiot.

One thing was definitely for certain: Blaine was not an outsider in his new family. Blaine made jokes at Finn's expense and carried on conversations with Dad and was fawned over by Carole. He was more a part of the family than Kurt was.

"Are you okay?" Blaine asked as Kurt scooted a little farther away from him on the couch. There were no longer three people on a two-and-a-half person couch, he didn't need to be so close to... he had no idea what to call Blaine. He always looked at Kurt with a mixture of emotions that the countertenor couldn't really figure out. Confusion, maybe, and heartbreak. Loneliness.

"What do you mean?" Blaine didn't roll his eyes at Kurt's defensive tendencies, instead just smiling in that ridiculously warm way he did whenever he was in Kurt's immediate vicinity.

"I know you better than that, Kurt. You looked like a lost puppy, and just because Finn can't see it, doesn't mean I can't."

"Stop... reading my mind, or whatever it is you're doing," Kurt snapped, a little frustrated, but nothing seemed to faze Blaine.

"I'm not reading your mind. I'm reading your beautiful blue eyes." Kurt flushed and looked away. Blaine made comments like that all the time, things about Kurt's looks and personality that no one had ever said (or thought, probably) about him before. It wasn't that it made him uncomfortable, because it didn't. He just... didn't know what to think of them, or of Blaine. His comments made little butterflies fly around his stomach, but no worse than being in a room with Finn tended to. "Too far?" Blaine asked, worried as always about Kurt's mental health, and Kurt shook his head.

"No."

"Good." Blaine's smile made those butterflies do freakin' backflips. "And I'm sorry for reading your mind," he added, tilting his head with that same slightly-shy smile, but Kurt knew he didn't really mean it.

"Forgiven." Blaine was leaning in again (he seemed to be doing so subconsciously), and the butterflies in Kurt's stomach were very persistent about the countertenor not stopping him. Blaine had told him that Brittany was his first kiss, but he couldn't remember that either, and in a weird way, he had a chance to start over. Not only with Blaine (he really didn't have a choice on that one), but with all the stupid decisions he had made in his life. Plus, there was his hopeless pursuit of Finn.

But Finn had been amazing lately, helping him and being very relaxed. He had clearly grown much more accustomed to Kurt's presence during the last year and a half, and he seemed considerably less likely to freak out about Kurt's feelings. His feelings didn't seem so hopeless. If Blaine was out of the picture...

Blaine was so close now that his eyes fluttered shut. Kurt almost leaned forward to meet him the ten percent he seemed to be waiting (how many times had this guy seen Hitch?), curious what it would feel like to let Blaine kiss him.

Kurt was so glad the decision was taken out of his hands.

"Hey... guys?" Finn's voice started out bright and bubbly, then paused, growing concerned. Blaine jerked away, flushing red and deliberately not looking at Kurt.

"Has..." Blaine had to clear his throat, his voice sounded scratchy, "has Rachel calmed down at all?"

"Not really," Finn said, still looking between them in confusion. "Um, so, I texted Sam. I was thinking it would be cool for him to stop by tomorrow, so Kurt could meet someone he'll have a fresh start with." A headache was starting to build up behind his temples.

"It doesn't really count as a fresh start if Sam remembers him and he has no idea who Sam is!" Blaine argued, and it sounded like he thought it was a stupid idea.

"Dude, it's not like they were close or anything."

"Oh, really? Kurt was one of the people who knew when Sam lost his house, he would have sang a duet with Sam had it not been for you, considering he was the first person to really reach out to Sam when he joined the New Directions, and he kind of had a crush on him. Remember?" When the hell had all of that happened? Kurt rubbed his temples. "You want some Advil?" Blaine asked, obviously noticing the gesture. Kurt nodded, then regretted it. His poor head.

"Dude, it's not like you were there," Finn argued.

"I'm Kurt's-" No one had to cut Blaine off. Blaine cut himself off, looking over at Kurt guiltily. "I was Kurt's…" Blaine trailed off. "You know that I know this, Finn." Blaine cleared his throat as he stood up and headed for the kitchen. "Besides, Kurt's hanging out with Mercedes tomorrow, and I have no idea how things ended between those two. Might not be the best combination for someone who gets a lot of headaches."

"I hate it when you're right." Kurt looked up at Finn, surprised by his harsh tone when he was normally so laid-back, and he was surprised to find him glaring at Blaine's back. What was going on there?

* * *

Dinner was almost guaranteed to be an uncomfortable affair. It wasn't that anyone held any grudges against anyone else (not counting Blaine's instinctual anger at Finn for being the subject of the Kurt's desires, and Rachel's occasional stares at Kurt for staring at Finn), but there was just tension. Everyone had no idea what to say to Kurt, and Kurt didn't seem to have anything to say to anyone else.

Carole was whistling as she cooked dinner, reading a recipe for vegan vegetable lasagna off her phone as she cooked because Rachel had joined them for dinner. They expected Burt home from the shop at any moment. Kurt was rolling his eyes at Finchel being cute, and his silence was pointed. Normally, he commented in a light-hearted and brotherly way. Now he just alternated between staring at Finn and glaring at Rachel.

Any open-minded person that couldn't feel the ambience would think they were the perfect family portrait. Blaine and Kurt were sitting on one side of the made table, with Finn opposite Kurt and Rachel opposite Blaine. The position at the head of the table was open, waiting for the loving but firm father to get home from work, and the doting mother was cooking dinner.

"How did your studying go?" Rachel asked, obviously taking in the awkwardness and doing what she did best... making things more awkward.

"Fine," Blaine answered when no one else did. Every time Finn looked over at Kurt, Kurt looked away, but the moment Finn was looking back at Rachel, Kurt was looking back at Finn. It was an _incredible_ balancing act... that made Blaine want to punch a wall. "You were right. Kurt remembers quite a bit of his school work."

"Excellent." What Rachel's tone was _really_ saying was 'of course I was right,' but Blaine ignored that. "Have you considered my offer?" What her tone was saying _now_ was 'I'm right about other things too.'

"I think my answer is going to have to be the same," Blaine said coolly, and Rachel glared at him. Apparently he was more worth glaring at than Kurt.

"What's your plan then?" Rachel demanded, and she was starting to go full-crazy again.

"I don't know, Rachel. We'll have to see. It's not like things are _normal _right now." Blaine regretted it as soon as he said it. He could feel the atmosphere get more awkward as Kurt shrunk in on himself. Kurt had reverted back to the person he had been when they had met... or worse. "Kurt, I'm sorry," he said immediately, turning to look at Kurt. The countertenor was wringing his hands and staring down at them.

"It's fine," Kurt muttered. "I certainly hope this isn't the normal for family dinners, because I know everyone in this room is as uncomfortable as I am." There went the elephant in the room.

"Kurt, look at me," Blaine requested, turning around in his chair. Kurt, of course, didn't. "_Kurt_," he said a little bit more firmly, reaching over and lifting Kurt's chin up, "I'm sorry," he said gently, ignoring the sliver of his heart that cracked off at how bright Kurt's eyes were. "I know you hate this as much as we do."

Kurt smiled shakily, pulling his face out of Blaine's gentle grip without saying anything else. Blaine didn't try to stop him. "Dude, it's fine," Finn said gently, and Blaine practically cracked in half when Kurt brightened right up. He wanted Kurt to be happy, but it _killed_ him that Finn made him happy instead of Blaine. That had once been Blaine's job. "It's not like you could have stopped your head from hitting that table."

The room froze, for just a few seconds. "Is that what happened?" It was a question that Blaine realized no one had addressed yet. Kurt knew that _something_ had happened, but the Dr. Eastlake probably hadn't explained it to him, Dr. Sanchez was so frazzled from her internship that she probably didn't even remember, and Blaine was almost certain that Jess didn't know, since she had been nursing a shocked Blaine to health rather than watching as Kurt was given an initial exam by the doctors.

"We were out for ice cream-" Blaine started, but Finn cut him off.

"I got this, Blaine." His voice was almost as icy as Kurt's usually was. "Yeah, the New Directions were out for an end-of-summer ice cream party, and some... jackhole tripped you and your head bounced off a table." Finn didn't mention anything else, the way Puck had chased the guy down, the ambulance coming, those horrible hours when they thought that Kurt wouldn't make it... nothing. Blaine bit his tongue. Hard.

"Oh. I guess the general consensus of the nation towards the gays hasn't changed very much then?" Kurt asked with a raised eyebrow, and Blaine's water almost came out his nose.

"Well, now we can get married in D.C. and New York, and civil unions in Illinois, Hawaii, Delaware, and Rhode Island, as far as I'm aware," Blaine said with a roll of his eyes, "but the general majority of the nation... no. Not even a little bit."

"Great," Kurt said with a roll of his eyes as well, but he looked over at Blaine and smiled a little. It wasn't the way he smiled at Finn, but it was enough.

"I really am sorry," Blaine muttered, aware it was probably very audible in the near-silent room, but Kurt just shook his head.

"Hey, kiddos," Burt said as he came through the door, and they had all been so distracted with the conversation that they hadn't heard his truck pull up. At least, Blaine hadn't. "How ya doin', bud?" he asked his son, who smiled at him. Blaine had no idea what was going on with them, but Kurt seemed to have warmed up to his more-involved father a little.

"Fine, dad," was his answer, and Burt nodded. He clapped Blaine on the shoulder as he walked by the table to give his wife a kiss (making Finn stick his tongue out) and ask how long it would be until dinner.

"Five minutes, oh impatient one," Carole teased as she pushed him back towards the table.

"So, what's everyone been up to for the summer?" Burt wasn't exactly the most subtle man on the planet. This was his version of trying to fill Kurt in on what's been happening, and even Kurt realized this, rolling his eyes in a way that was _almost_ affectionate. He really hadn't warmed up to anyone.

"Rachel's been torturing her neighbors through song, no doubt," Blaine said with a little grin at Rachel, who glared at him again. Apparently, she couldn't take a joke when she was mad.

"Actually, Rachel's been assistant directing at the local theatre," Finn pipped up. Judging by his slightly-sour expression, he was more trying to prove Blaine wrong than trying to stand up for his girlfriend.

"I used to do plays there when I was little."

"Rachel," Kurt cut in, "do remember that for me Sectionals 2009 was just about yesterday, and I _distinctly_ recall us establishing that you never actually _got_ any of the parts you auditioned for when you were a child." Finn looked like he was trying really hard not to laugh, but Blaine didn't get what was funny. He wasn't at all a part of the world that Kurt remembered.

He wished he had paid a little more attention when Kurt was telling hi the stories of his sophomore year, back before they had even been dating.

He couldn't believe that he missed those days.

* * *

_ "Who did you go up against at Sectionals last year?" Kurt asked him from across the table at the Lima Bean. It was the first time that week he hadn't been going on and on about the wedding, but Blaine didn't ask what was wrong. He had a feeling he knew, and his name started with F._

_ "Vocal Adrenaline," Blaine answered with a sigh. "According to Wes, for the last three years we've gone up against Vocal Adrenaline in the first round and gotten creamed. Good thing that's not happening this year."_

_ "Of course not," Kurt said casually, and when Blaine looked at him in surprise, he was smirking. "You're going up against a threat far more formidable than Dustin Goolsby's automatons first round. However, you are _partially_ right. You're definitely going to get creamed." Blaine cracked up laughing._

_ "Okay, the New Directions may be a challenge to the Warblers, and I'm not even entirely conceding that, but there's _no_ way you guys are better than Vocal Adrenaline. The dancing alone puts them miles ahead of everyone else. Add Sunshine Corazon's amazing vocals, and no one has a chance."_

_ "We almost had Sunshine Corazon, until Rachel, crazy as always, sent her to a crack house instead of telling her where the real auditions were."_

_ "What?" Blaine asked, almost doing a spit-take with hot coffee._

_ "Well, we were recruiting at the beginning of this year..."_

* * *

Blaine swallowed a lump of guilt at the fact that he couldn't remember the rest of the story. Not that Kurt remembered either that incident or the story he had been telling, but Blaine should have remembered both. He had so many treasured moments with Kurt that he threw away with inattention.

Before Blaine could wallow too deep in self-recrimination, Carole yelled out, "Dinner's ready! Finn, come help me serve," and Kurt's step-brother huffed as he was requested to perform a common family service. How selfish could one seventeen-year-old boy be?

"Smells delicious, Carole," Burt said hopefully, and Carole gave him a rather evil grin from where she was filling plates for Finn to serve.

"It's vegetable lasagna. No salt," she stressed as she ladled out a huge portion that was doubtlessly for Burt.

"Why not?" Kurt asked, and at first no one thought anything of it.

"You know I wasn't talking to you, sweetie," Carole said with her usual smile.

"But why can't Dad have salt?" Kurt asked. "He has salt on everything." Kurt sounded confused, and everyone kind of looked at each other awkwardly. This was another huge detail that they had overlooked in their initial analysis of 'what had Kurt missed.' It had been a significant event in each of their lives (it had even affected Blaine, because it had affected Kurt. Old Kurt), and Kurt had no idea it had happened.

"Kiddo..." Burt said slowly, looking around the table. Finn was staying in the kitchen, and Carole was doing the same thing rather than trying to stop her son. Rachel was looking down at her empty place setting and it was very clear that she was wishing to pull an Alice and fall out of the awkward situation into Wonderland. Plus, it would finally give her an excuse to sing Avril Lavigne that wasn't about Quinn.

Of course. _That_ story he remembered.

"Dad, _what_?" Kurt asked, and he sounded both urgent and nervous. As he had a right to be. It wasn't like everyone was acting _normally_. They were actually kind of terrible at this.

"About a month after school started during your junior year, I had a heart attack," Burt said as calmly as possible, but Kurt still looked about ready to pass out.

"A hea..." Kurt's hand jumped up to cover his mouth as tears welled in his eyes. "Oh, you stupid idiot. I told you to be more careful about your health," Kurt said, but there was no vitriol to it. He just sounded completely distraught.

"Well, thanks to a healthy ass-whooping from my doctor- pardon my language-" he said quickly to Rachel, who smiled politely, "and constant supervision from both you and Carole," Burt never made the distinction between the person Kurt had been and the person Kurt was, "my heart is fine now, my diet is much healthier, and I'm doing much better."

"That doesn't make this okay!" Kurt said at a significantly-louder-than-normal volume. "Dad, you could have _died_, you almost... this isn't something you can brush off because it's all better now!"

"Kurt, calm down," Burt said, still remaining calm. "I know you've had a rough couple of days-"

"This isn't about me!" Kurt objected immediately, cutting Burt off and standing up from the table. "This is about the fact that you didn't take care of yourself and you almost..." Kurt suddenly doubled over, clutching at his head.

"Kiddo?" Burt asked immediately.

"Kurt?" Blaine asked, putting his hand on Kurt's shoulder only to have Kurt slap it away.

"_Don't touch me_," Kurt snapped. "And I... I..." Kurt let out a deep breath and it was like all the animation flowed right out of him. He went back to looking sickly pale like he had in the car, but Blaine still didn't dare touch him. Not if Kurt didn't want him to. "I'm not hungry," Kurt said decisively, pushing his chair away from the table, and snatching the Advil bottle from its spot next to the couch as he rushed upstairs.

"That went well," Burt said with a sigh, readjusting his baseball cap. Carole, always the doting wife, placed a beer in front of him. "Thanks, Carole," he said a little gruffly, taking a long swing of it. "I completely forgot that he didn't know about that."

"I think we all did," Carole said softly as she sat down at the table with her own plate, not daring to take Kurt's vacated seat.

"He didn't exactly handle it well," Burt said, but then he sighed again. "No, that's not true. That's exactly how he handled it the first time, when it was actually happening. I think I got the exact same, word-for-word lecture after I had been out of the hospital for about a week. That's why I called him my stress test. He gets unpredictable when he's stressed out."

"What was with the sudden dramatics?" Rachel asked, clearly not considering this a family affair like Blaine did. "I mean, not that I don't appreciate a sudden bend or even a genuflection while performing a dramatic monologue, but that was strange, even for someone with diva-like tendencies."

"He gets really bad headaches," Blaine muttered, feeling free to talk now. "That's what it looked like."

"Yes, but headaches build. They don't just suddenly attack your head," Finn pointed out, and now that Kurt was safely away from the man he was infatuated with, Blaine didn't have the same urge to kill him.

"It was odd," Carole agreed, taking a bit of her vegetable lasagna and winning the title of the first person to remember they had rapidly-cooling dinner in front of them. "He kept saying almost."

"I hate to be that guy that jinxes everything," okay, he still kind of had the urge to hurt Finn, "but it was almost like he kind of remembered it. Like, he was trying to say that you almost died, but he couldn't know that, because we didn't tell him."

"Well," Rachel pipped up, and Blaine had never realized how annoying her speaking voice was, "it _is_ possible that his memory of traumatic events would recover the fastest. That's often what people remember most vividly, and I'm sure Kurt had some terrible memories of that time period." Rachel didn't seem concerned by how much pain her statements were causing Burt. "If he's going to remember anything, and that's a big if, it's probably going to be things that weren't very pleasant."

"Great. So we'll have our own walking, talking, amnesiac Edgar Allen Poe," Carole muttered. Suddenly, there were all laughing. Everyone at the table really needed to laugh.

* * *

Rachel had been sent home at Finn's curfew, but apparently they still didn't have the heart to send Blaine home, because he had been set up in the guest bedroom. It was probably around one in the morning, and Blaine was staring up at the ceiling, because sleep seemed perfectly unattainable.

It wasn't that Kurt had yelled at him. He was under a lot of stress, he was emotionally volatile (it was apparently a common symptom of amnesia), and he didn't like to be touched when he was upset anyway.

It wasn't that Kurt was crazy about Finn. That bothered him less when he wasn't actually witnessing it. Kurt's infatuation with FInn would be back to the forefront of his mind under the category of things driving him crazy in the morning. Kurt staring at Finn with heart eyes was one of the few things that could ruin pancakes, Blaine was willing to bet.

He didn't really know what it was that was preventing him from sleeping, but whatever it was, it was managing to keep him rather productive. He had spent a good two hours on Google only to find that Dr. Eastlake was right. There's no such thing as a common symptom, especially when it came to trauma-induced amnesia, and Blaine had no idea what to expect.

Okay, he was lying to himself. He knew _exactly_ what was keeping him up. Hope. Plain and simple. It was the hope created in the deep recesses of his heart when Finn had proposed that Kurt was remembering. Albeit, Finchel thought that he was only remembering traumatic things, but it couldn't be all bad, right? If he remembered the bad, he would probably remember some of the good, and hopefully some of that good would involve Blaine.

It really sucked to be single.

There were three sharp raps on the door, and if Finn was waking him from his hypothetical beauty sleep, he really might commit homicide. "Come in," he called anyway.

Kurt was sleep-ruffled, his hair a perfect haystack, and he was dressed in pajamas that looked like they belonged on Richie Rich. He was possibly the most adorable thing Blaine had ever seen in his life. "Can I come in?"

"Of course." Blaine almost scooted to make room on the bed before he remembered that Kurt wouldn't want to cuddle. Kurt didn't want Blaine to touch him.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Kurt whispered as he closed to door behind him, not sitting on the edge of the bed, but just standing awkwardly in front of it. "I just-"

"Don't like to be touched when you're upset," Blaine filled in the rest of the sentence. "I know."

"You're reading my mind again," Kurt accused with a little smile.

"Sorry."

Kurt sat down on the end of his bed, still smiling, spinning to face Blaine and pulling his knees up to his chest. "What time is it?"

"It's like..." Fuck. "It's four in the morning."

"Doesn't feel like four in the morning," Kurt said, looking at the clock in surprise.

"Disorientation is a common symptom of amnesia." That much, at least, people seemed to agree on.

"I'm _not_ disoriented," Kurt objected. "I just went to bed pretty early."

"Did you go to sleep right after you came upstairs?" Blaine asked. He was determined not to mention Kurt's little dramatic storm-out. It hadn't been that big a deal. Rachel still did it weekly.

"Yes," was all Kurt said, silently agreeing with Blaine's rule.

"How are you feeling?"

"Have you ever felt really woozy?" Kurt asked. "Like, you've been spinning and spinning and spinning, and the world stopped, but you're still spinning..."

"Every time I've tried to hit a piñata, _ever_," Blaine said with a smile, but Kurt was serious.

"That's how I feel. It's like I'm in the middle of my own private whirlwind, and I'm dizzy but the rest of the world is standing still, just flying by around me." Blaine desperately wanted to cuddle with Kurt now.

"Kurt, maybe you should go get checked out. If you're really feeling that-"

"_Blaine_," Kurt stopped him. "They told me that I'm okay, and I _want_ to believe them, okay? If only for a little while." Blaine stopped to consider it, looking at how drained Kurt was, how pale, and decided he needed someone who was just on his side.

"Okay," he decided. "But I'm worried about those headaches of yours."

"Me too. The one I got earlier was the worst I've ever had, and I've stayed home from school because of migraines... but you know that," Kurt said with a sigh. "I have to stop telling you stuff about myself. You already know everything."

"Very true," Blaine said with a laugh. "And I know you well enough to know that you didn't take a bite of that _delicious_ vegetable lasagna, and you must be starving."

"You _really_ need to stop reading my mind," Kurt said with a laugh as Blaine clambered out of bed. "Where are you going?"

"Come on," Blaine said, pulling Kurt up. "Let's go get you some food."

* * *

"I don't think I've ever snuck around downstairs while my dad was asleep upstairs," Kurt whispered with a giggle as he led Blaine down the stairs.

"Careful on the third one," Blaine muttered. It wasn't that he had snuck around the Hummel-Hudson house a lot, of course, but he did know a little more about the creaky stair than Kurt did, considering he had no memory of the house.

"Clearly _you've_ snuck around downstairs while my dad was asleep upstairs," Kurt whispered as he hopped over the creaky stair.

"I can't believe you _haven't_," Blaine whispered in return, and really, they were being silly. Not only would Burt not be woken up by the normal volume of their voices, but he would probably be happy that Kurt was eating. "Did you forget your childhood too?"

There were two possible reactions to Blaine's joke. Either Kurt would flip out again and yell at Blaine (which would definitely wake up Burt), or Kurt would laugh.

Kurt giggled. "Actually, it's about the only thing I remember clearly at this point," he teased in return as they snuck through the living room. At this point, they were probably only really being sneaky for their own amusement.

"I hope it was awesome then," Blaine teased as they reached the kitchen, probably not having woken anyone up.

"It was... for the most part," Kurt said quietly, and Blaine gave him a soft smile. He knew the story: Burt had bought him pretty much everything he wanted, but he had always been busy and distant, and the place they had spent the most time together was the shop.

Their relationship really had improved in the year and a half that Kurt didn't remember.

"So, I'm guessing you don't really want the vegetable lasagna?" Blaine asked, opening the fridge. There wasn't anything _wrong_ with the vegetable lasagna, it had been great dinner, but it was still _vegetable lasagna_. As health-conscious as Kurt was (and Blaine had heard it was worse the farther back he went), he couldn't really want to eat that when there was more on hand and he wouldn't hurt Carole's feelings.

"I can't believe no one told me that my Dad had a heart attack," Kurt said quietly. There goes the elephant in the room.

"We didn't remember that you didn't know," Blaine said honestly.

"How could you not _remember_-" Kurt started angrily, but Blaine cut him off.

"Of course we remember the heart attack. It's just hard not to think of you as someone who was there because you _were_ there. It's the same thing with moving. No one told you that your family had moved because _you_ picked out this house, and _you_ assigned the rooms, and _you_ dealt with the contractors that made the house your own, and _you_ scouted out interest rates on home loans for your father. You were there every step of the way, it's hard to think of you not remembering." That was the best way Blaine could explain it. This was the life they were used to, one where the Hudson-Hummel family was a _family_ that lived in a new house, one where Burt watched his diet because of his heart attack from last year. It was weird to think not everyone lived in their reality.

"And you think this is easy for me?" Kurt demanded, but he didn't sound as angry now.

"Of course not. I think this sucks all around," Blaine said with a sigh, "but we're all dealing with it as best we can. Maybe... maybe while you're shopping with Mercedes tomorrow, we can put together a timeline, Rachel and Finn and I, and make sure we didn't forget to tell you anything else major. We told you about your dad's heart attack, and Burt and Carole getting married, about moving, you know about Dalton, and that you're back at McKinley-"

"Actually, I didn't know that," Kurt interrupted him. "And I'm still missing pieces of that story."

"Yeah, they're called the crazy people you met there, and I think _they're_ a little much for you at the moment." They were too much for any sane person, never mind... whatever Kurt was. Not quite right, Blaine knew that much.

"Did I like Dalton?" Kurt asked curiously

"Why do you ask?" Blaine asked, kind of surprised that Kurt was wondering. Not that he expected Kurt to remember (he was getting better at that), but he couldn't imagine why Kurt would think he wouldn't.

"Because I'm back at McKinley," Kurt answered casually, "and I wouldn't have returned to McKinley, a place I _vividly_ remember hating, if I had liked Dalton..."

"Kurt, McKinley isn't the same place as the one you remember. We went to _Prom_ there and didn't get murdered or kicked out by Principal Figgins, there are people working towards gay rights... it's a whole different school. And as far as I'm aware, you liked Dalton, and you liked the Warblers, but you love the New Directions more than anything, and I'm willing to bet that was the same back then."

Kurt was looking rather dejectedly at the ground. "Actually, no. I mean, Sectionals, the one I remember, was amazing, but we were still childish and fighting and arguing about Driz... Beth and who was really at fault for that whole mess."

"Well, I'm sorry that's what you remember," and that would explain why he hadn't exactly been excited when Rachel and Santana came by the hospital, "but the New Directions is one big, crazy, incestuous family now, and I'm pretty sure they would trade anything for you to take your proper place in that family again." Blaine pulled out a surprisingly-not-gross freezer fettuccine alfredo. It was one of Kurt's guilty pleasures, and the perfect comfort food.

"I don't know them," was Kurt's miserable-sounding answer.

"You will," Blaine answered simply. "They know you, the way you were before and the way you are now, and they love you no matter what."

"Why do you love me?"

Blaine whirled around to look at Kurt in surprise, hitting several random microwave buttons as he did so, but Kurt appeared to be completely serious. "No."

"What do you mean, 'no?'" Kurt asked, sounding kind of angry.

"_No_, we're not talking about this."

"Blaine-"

"_No_," Blaine said more firmly.

"Blaine, tell me."

"Kurt, I already told you everything that happened between us, I already told you every moment we shared that was special and every stupid thing I did when I was too oblivious for words. I would _pay_ to have a fresh start in this relationship, and I'm not missing this chance by saying something stupid."

"Who says you're going to say something stupid?"

"You really don't know me, do you?" Blaine asked with a self-deprecating chuckle.

"What if I promised you I won't judge you on what you say?"

"I would reply as follows: 'oh, come _on_. That's a cheap trick, even for you,'" Blaine said, with as much eye rolling and finger waving as he could put into it, making Kurt laugh.

"Blaine, why won't you just tell me?"

"Kurt, trust me. Love sounds absolutely _crazy_ to people who aren't in it. You would think I was a total nut job, and possibly a stalker who's going to cut off your skin and wear it to my birthday party."

Kurt laughed. "I love that movie."

"I know," Blaine said with a smile. "It's one of the only wildly inappropriate movies you put up with. And the story's violent to boot."

"This story's about to get violent if you don't tell me why." Blaine snorted at that. Yes, he knew Kurt was stronger than he looked (it would be almost impossible not to be), but there was no way Kurt was stronger than him. "Don't doubt a Cheerio. _Ever_."

"And I wouldn't," Blaine said very seriously, "if we were talking about the degree to which they can separate their legs... and I'm not even making a dirty joke." Kurt looked like he was fighting a smile. It was _that_ pout. The 'what you just said was funny, but I'm still annoyed with you' pout that Blaine was mildly-familiar with. Or extremely-familiar with. Either way.

"Blaine. Tell me."

"Maybe later," Blaine hedged. "Maybe when you're not feeling so woozy, and you've been re-introduced to the New Directions and the Warblers, and once we're back in school, and you don't have any more headaches."

"Is that a maybe or a promise?" Kurt asked very seriously, and Blaine sighed.

"A promise," he said, not entirely sure if he was being honest. "Who knows, maybe by that time, you'll feel the same way."

"I..."

"Kidding," Blaine lied. "You know, you asked me this question once, while we were dating."

"I don't suppose I can trick you by asking what you said?"

"Not a chance. But I have to say, my answer now is the same as it was then."

"Do we have a deal?" Kurt asked, and he held out a hand. Thankfully, the microwave beeped, and Blaine didn't have to shake it. Instead, he placed Kurt's dinner in it, checking first to make sure it wasn't too hot to touch.

"Deal. Bon appetit," he said with a smile as he grabbed two forks, and Kurt rolled his eyes. "What?"

"You're an overgrown child."

"That's far, _far_ from the first time you've told me that."

"Not shocking." They sat down at the table and Kurt started in on his food like he was famished. Blaine only had to raise one eyebrow to ask. "What? Hospital food is _disgusting_, even the kind they give to the patients."

"I'm aware," Blaine said, and then realized he had slipped up. Kurt put down his fork for a moment, taking a long look at him.

"Why were _you_ at Dalton?" Kurt asked, and he was more than willing to tell his story.

"Why do you assume it's not because I have a trust fund and a mansion?" Blaine asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Maybe because I didn't know either of those things about you," Kurt said, raising his eyebrow in return.

"Touché," Blaine said, using the fork he had taken from the drawer to steal a few of Kurt's noodles. Kurt, surprisingly, didn't object.

"Are we going to have some sort of Lady and the Tramp moment?" he asked, eyebrow still raised as Blaine continued stealing his food.

"Only if you want to," Blaine replied, done stealing Kurt's dinner. "We don't have any meatballs though."

"What happened to you?"

"Same thing that happens to every other gay kid in Ohio: gay-bashing. I got bashed, I ran away to a protective curtain of money, end of story."

"Then why are you coming to McKinley? And _don't_ say it's because of me. I know it is, but I just... I mean why are you _risking_ coming to McKinley?"

"Well, since you don't want me to say it's because of you, I'm going to have to go with the fact that I've grown up a lot since I was a freshman, and I think I'm ready to face the big, bad world again."

"Are you a senior?"

Blaine shook his head. "Junior."

"Wow." Blaine raised an eyebrow in his direction. "I never pictured myself for a cradle-robber." For some reason, that was the funniest thing both of them had ever heard, and Blaine wouldn't have been shocked if Burt and Carole had come tumbling down the stairs to yell at them (not Finn. He slept like the dead).

"Number one," Blaine started once they had both almost controlled themselves, but then Kurt let out another little puff of laughter, and they were both laughing again. "Number one," he tried again as Kurt stood up to get some water, "one year doesn't count as cradle-robbing."

"Sure it doesn't," Kurt said from the refrigerator.

"Number two," Blaine continued, ignoring that, "you can never really picture the person you've going to become."

"That's philosophical," Kurt replied.

"But if I get a say, and I always give myself a say, I know you're a pretty great one. And you'll figure out who that person is again, eventually."

Kurt didn't say anything, and for a long second there was silence. Then Kurt stood up from grabbing a water and turned to face Blaine. "Are you hitting on me?"

"I've actually been trying really hard not to," Blaine said honestly, but Kurt didn't seem to find that funny.

"You're not doing a very good job."

Blaine choked on his own spit at the bluntness of Kurt's statement. "I... _hitting on you_ and _complimenting_ you are two different things."

"Not when you're my... when we're in a situation like this," Kurt said, hesitating on Blaine's title the same way the tenor did mentally. "Look, I know this must be confusing for you-"

"'Confusing for me?' No, this is _heartbreaking_ for me. It's 'confusing' for you, maybe, and you're certainly 'confusing' me, but I know exactly what has happened." He had no idea how they had gone from quietly arguing about love to fighting about compliments. He would use the phrase 'emotional roller coaster' if it weren't so cliched.

"Why are you angry?" Kurt demanded. "If anyone has a right to be angry, it's me. I lost a significant portion of my life, and everyone says it was a great one."

"You know why everyone says that?" Blaine asked, and oh God, this was such bad word vomit. He couldn't stop talking. Now he knew what it felt like to be Rachel. "Because you met _me_. Because you came to Dalton with me. Because you grew up and chilled out with me by your side. So don't you tell me I don't have a right to be angry." Why couldn't he stop talking? And why was he standing up?

"None of that means you have a right to be angry with me," Kurt said, storming across the room to face Blaine head on.

The room froze. There was one incredibly intense moment, all the hair standing up on Blaine's arms, and he had a feeling Kurt could sense the tension.

"If this was any other day, you would kiss me right now, wouldn't you?" Kurt asked, his whisper sounding all the more dramatic for the fact that they had been yelling at each other only a few seconds ago.

"Yes," Blaine answered honestly, because Kurt was _stunning_ when he was angry, eyes a shiny blue and cheeks flushed with indignation.

"Do it." Blaine stared at Kurt in shock. If Brittany was my first kiss, and Karofsky was my second, that would make you my third." It was weird to see Kurt mention Karofsky and that incident without flinching, but considering he didn't actually remember and he only knew the story, it probably wasn't quite as traumatic. "Don't you want the chance to be my first?"

"You have no idea how badly I want that," Blaine whispered, leaning just a smidgen closer.

They jumped apart so fast when the lights suddenly turned on that they banged their foreheads.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?" Carole asked from the doorway. She looked unfairly amused. "Shouldn't you two be sleeping?" She didn't even seem to disapprove of what had almost happened. She just seemed to be enjoying torturing them.

"I..." Kurt looked over at Blaine like he had just woken up from a dream. "I just came down to grab some dinner," he said, pointing awkwardly at the fetuccine alfredo dish still resting on the table.

"We were just... talking," Blaine added, suddenly feeling a lead ball of guilt in his stomach. "I'm just... gonna go upstairs." He ducked around Carole and her slightly-smug smirk, heading straight for the guest room and locking the door for good measure.

"Okay, new rule," he muttered to himself, not really caring anymore if he sounded like (or was) a crazy person. "No taking advantage of Kurt."

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter seems... fragmented, but that's the way it was written, and I based an entire scene off a situation which I had already addressed earlier in the story (I'm glad I checked), but I liked the scene so I only half-rewrote it, and for the life of me I can't think of anything better. So, for the sake of turning writer's block into a game, try to guess which scene it is!**

**Um. Not much else to say. No idea how long it's been since I've updated this story, so I should probably apologize just in case. Statistically it's the safe thing to do.**

**No songs used. I don't know how to spell 'fetuccine aldredo,' according to my computer, and, as always...**

**Reviews are Love.**


	8. The Runaway

Blaine was mentally reviewing every episode of Castle he had ever watched and trying to create the perfect crime, because murdering Finn was definitely on his list.

They were _supposed_ to be helping Kurt with his review before he went shopping with Mercedes (who would be coming just before lunch), and their topic for the day was math. Blaine was okay at math, and Finn was _terrible_ at math, but Kurt was _excellent_ at math, so it really wasn't a good combination to begin with.

What wasn't helping, of course, was that since their little 'almost' in the kitchen last night, Kurt had barely made eye contact with him. Blaine had no idea what was going on in the countertenor's head, whether he was upset or embarrassed or just didn't want to talk about it, but it didn't matter. Kurt also seemed to have given up the appearance of not being crazy about the jock around Blaine, and he was flirting with his step-brother to the point that it should make him uncomfortable. It was certainly making Blaine uncomfortably homicidal. The most interesting part was that Finn seemed rather amused instead.

"So, how's your beloved man hands?" Kurt asked, because he still hadn't warmed up to the new Rachel or the fact that she had won Finn (not that there was ever really any competition).

Finn chuckled. "It's so weird to hear you call her that again." Oh, Blaine got it. Finn could be _nostalgic_ about the times when Kurt was in love with him, because he didn't really care that they were over. "Rachel's good. Bossy, but good." He didn't even get it, did he?

"And by 'bossy,' I'm going to assume you mean crazy?" Kurt asked with a derisive smirk. Clearly, he and Rachel had _not_ been friends... which was something Blaine could only kind of picture. With two people as similar as Kurt and Rachel, there were really only three courses of relationship: either they kill each other, become best friends, or get married. Since the third one didn't seem very likely, and by the time Blaine met Kurt they had moved past the first one, Blaine was definitely used to the second option. Kurt didn't seem to agree.

"Come on, Kurt, lay off. And try these two," Finn pointed to two fairly easy problems.

"18 pi over 2, which is 9 pi, and 16 pi over 7," Kurt answered after having looked at them for a grand total of three seconds. It would have taken Blaine at least two minutes to do those, with paper and a pencil. "And why should I lay off her when she's sticking her voluminous nose into my business?" Blaine almost snickered at that one, but he didn't want Finn to punch him, and for a lot of the last few days, it had seemed like Finn was ready to.

"Dude, she's only doing it because she cares."

"She's only doing it because she doesn't know how to care _properly_," Kurt corrected, "and that's what you always say. She can't _possibly_ care that much about everything. She would be too emotional to stand."

"Sometimes she is," Finn said, making Kurt huff. It was impossible to have an argument with someone as nice as Finn. Which was another reason Kurt liked him and Blaine kind of heated him. "You're way too good at math, dude."

"Math is easy to pick up," Kurt said, but then he smiled that damn enamored little smile of his and added, "especially when I have a great tutor like you."

"Dude, Blaine is _way_ better at math than I am." See, that's the kind of thing that would make him feel guilty as he dumped Finn's body into a large, dirty body of water or left him in a ditch that was going to be filled with concrete. That Finn was actually _trying_ to promote Blaine in Kurt's eyes, it just... didn't seem to be working.

"Well, you're better at explaining," Kurt countered, eyes not flicking over to Blaine for even a moment. "Maybe we just think alike." They were just reaching _sad_ at this point.

"Not really, dude. You said camo and vests are the two most horrendous staples of my wardrobe last week, and I'm wearing both at the moment." Kurt had kind of had a point. Too bad he didn't seem to think so at the moment.

"Well, I'm not the same person now. People change."

"Or revert," Blaine muttered, and Finn flashed him a grin.

"Pardon me?" Kurt asked coldly, looking at him with icy green-blue eyes.

"Nothing," Blaine said innocently. "You clearly remember a good portion of math, so why don't we move on to physics?" Plus, this was one of the classes that Blaine and Kurt had taken that Finn had _not_ (he wasn't quite as much of a physical sciences person, and he had gone with anatomy or astronomy or something).

"How about U.S. History?" Kurt asked, and though Finn technically _had_ taken that class, he had also _forgotten_ that he was taking the class _while_ taking the class, so at some point, Kurt would be forced to interact with him. Eventually.

"Sounds good," Finn said, but he got up instead of opening the U.S. History textbook that he had probably never touched before. "I'm gonna go grab a drink. You want anything?"

"No, thank you, Finn," Kurt said dreamily, and Blaine could tell Kurt was impressed with Finn's chivalry. Oh, come on! It was about fifteen feet to the kitchen, and he was going _anyway_!

"Blaine?"

"Nah, dude," he managed to say civilly, and he realized his mistake when Kurt rolled his eyes.

"Plebeian."

"Finn seems to be the exception to your rule about 'dude,'" Blaine shot back.

"Finn has the IQ of the average squirrel, and the attention span to boot, but that doesn't mean he's not a good guy."

"You think I'm not a good guy?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"Funny, you didn't seem to mind last night," Blaine snapped, and he saw Finn's eyes widen incrementally. Blaine shooed him off with a gesture and a shake of the head, hoping they could get things in the clear.

"I didn't know you were a plebeian last night, and I still don't know if you're a good guy. I don't know _anything_ about you," Kurt said, lowing his voice to a whisper, "but I know you were willing to kiss me when I was half out of my mind-"

"What do you want me to do, Kurt?" Blaine hissed, equally as angry as Kurt seemed to be. "You _know_ I'm crazy about you, and you tell me to do things like kiss you, and you expect me to stop and try to reasonably analyze your completely scrambled brain before I do?"

"Yes," was all Kurt whispered in return. "I'm confused enough without you adding to it!"

"You _asked_ me to kiss you," Blaine reminded him, "and you were the one who got in my face and then brought it up in the first place." Plus, if it had been any other day, Blaine would have grabbed him and kissed the hell out of him. They would have been knocking over lamps and bumping into furniture, and generally having some sort of sexy montage to the tune of _Dirty Minds_.

He needed to stop watching Scrubs. Or maybe just TV in general.

"Of course I did!" Kurt objected, still taking quietly enough that Finn hopefully couldn't hear them. "Because I'm crazy at the moment, and I've been wondering what it would like since that hazy one at the hospital!" Blaine had almost forgotten about that. His memory of the few minutes between Kurt waking up and him passing out was a little hazy too.

"Well, make up your mind before you toy with someone else's emotions!" Blaine whispered hotly, then leaned back on the couch, away from the argument. He knew Kurt was stressed and confused, but so was everyone else (especially him), and last night had almost made it much, _much_ worse.

Though, it looks like either way that situation could have ended wasn't exactly _helpful_.

"So, U.S. History?" Finn asked as he came back with a soda. If it had been last week, Kurt would have turned his nose up instantly at his poor health choice. In his current state, he didn't even seem to notice.

"Any history is fine with me," Kurt said dreamily. Sad. So sad.

"How about a story then?" Blaine said immediately, and he ignored the glare Kurt gave him. "I'm sure we can think of a good one."

"How about the Rocky Horror incident?" Of course. The only story Finn can come up with is the one that involves almost-nudity.

"So, in the weeks right before we met," Blaine began, trying to insert himself into the story, but having the distinct feeling that he was being ignored anyway, "McKinley was doing The Rocky Horror Show as a show, for some ridiculous reason that involved Ms. Pillsbury and Mr. Schuester and Mr... what was his name again?" Blaine asked Finn begrudgingly.

"Dr. Howell," Finn replied, and Blaine knew he had lost his story-telling opportunity. "He was married to Ms. Pillsbury for a little bit."

"Ms. Pillsbury was _married_?" Kurt asked in shock, and it was easy to forget what he couldn't remember.

"Yeah, for like... eight months maybe? Nine? They got it annulled," Finn filled in the blanks.

"Anyway," Blaine said, taking his chance, "Rachel and Finn got cast as Brad and Janet-"

"Typical," Kurt muttered, but Blaine knew the disdain was just for Rachel being cast as Janet, and he had a point. Mr. Schuester didn't seem to believe in nontraditional casting.

"But I was feeling a little uncomfortable about my costume," Finn admitted.

"Or lack thereof," Blaine said to prevent whatever doubtlessly encouraging thing Kurt was about to say about how sexy Finn was, and Kurt giggled, probably picturing it. "So Finn, driven to bad ideas by Rachel as always-"

"Totally not her plan, dude."

"I don't doubt that," Blaine muttered, because Rachel, for all of her lovely qualities, wasn't very... sexual. About anything. "Finn decides that in order to be comfortable performing in front of the school as Brad, he should walk around the school in his underwear." Finn was laughing at himself, and yeah, Blaine could see why it was easy to like Finn.

"I'm sorry I missed that," Kurt muttered just loud enough for Blaine to hear.

"Didn't get in too much trouble, though," Finn added, "Mr. Schuester's always pretty chill about stuff like that."

"Once again, typical," Kurt said, and Mr. Schuester's rampant favoritism was obviously not a new thing. "For the record, Finn, you have nothing to be embarrassed about." Kurt's statement had a very genuine ring to it, but it was definitely flirting. Blaine wasn't sure what to be more annoyed about: Kurt's flirtations or Finn's relatively chill reactions to them. Then he felt like a horrible person for wishing Finn was reacting poorly.

"Thanks, bro." Kurt didn't even blink. "All right, U.S. History."

"We should probably start with the reign of King James II..."

* * *

By the time Mercedes knocked on the door, Blaine was about ready to kill Finn for being a decent person. He was debating between making it look like a mob hit and making it look like Finn was secretly a spy. Either one would be difficult to pull off, but worth it.

Blaine practically jumped off the couch to answer the door when Mercedes knocked on it. "Well, that was quick," she said with a little smile. "How's he?"

"Infuriating," Blaine answered before he could help it.

"So, I guess that answers how you are too, white boy," she said as she walked in. "You ready to go, bo?"

"More than ready," Kurt said, jumping off the couch to give Mercedes what looked like a tight hug.

"Hey, 'Cedes," Finn called out from the couch as he started setting up his Xbox. Blaine had no idea what he was going to for the hours they were gone, but he was glad Kurt was getting out of the house.

"Have fun," he said to Kurt as he walked out with Mercedes, and Kurt stopped right in front of him as Mercedes continued walking and talking about fashion. He turned towards Blaine, mouthed, 'I'm sorry,' kissed him quickly on the cheek, then left.

What the hell was he supposed to do with that?

* * *

"You can't blame me for the fact he doesn't like you, dude." Somehow, Finn had managed to convince Blaine that a good way to spend his afternoon was to play Call of Duty on his Xbox with him. The game wasn't actually all that interesting, but it was frighteningly mind-numbing, and before Blaine knew it an hour had passed. Unfortunately, the hour mark led to that statement.

"I don't," was the only answer Blaine could give him, even though it was probably a lie.

"Really? 'Cause you've kind of been looking at me the way Rachel did after she figured out I broke up with her to date Santana and Brittany." Clearly, they were all in the story-telling frame of mind.

"I'm sorry," Blaine said, even though he felt guilty about not meaning it. "Logically, I know that it's not your fault that he's crazy about you, but..." Oh, God, he was not going to start telling Finn emotional things, "I was jealous enough of your relationship when it was strictly a platonic friendship, but now that he's crazy about you again..." Blaine left it at that. "And don't tell me you're not gay. I know that, and I know you're not interested in Kurt." Stupid word vomit.

"I wish I saw the problem right now."

"Finn, if I had met Kurt during your sophomore year, I would have had no chance with him, because he was so crazy about you." Blaine wasn't angry _or_ crazy enough to tell Finn that Kurt had been in love with him. "He literally told me that."

"And now you're back there."

"Exactly."

"I'm sorry, bro, but..." Blaine knew what Finn was going to say. There really wasn't anything he could do without hurting Kurt, and that was the last thing both of them wanted.

"Yeah. I know." Just for fun, Blaine turned on Finn's character and killed him. Finn didn't say anything.

* * *

By the time Kurt and Mercedes got back, Blaine knew way more about Call of Duty than he had ever wanted to, only having taken a break to start dinner, and he and Finn hadn't talked for... six hours. Jeez. "Boys!" Mercedes called out. "Bag help! Now!" Finn turned off the console as they both got off the couch to help. Mercedes was nice, but she could also be wonderfully scary in her own way.

Finn groaned when he saw the pile of bags, but Blaine just said, "Wow." Kurt probably had an entirely new wardrobe in the bags piled in the back and trunk of the Navigator.

"I thought I could use a little updating," Kurt said with a smile. Blaine did a double take and realized he wasn't even in the same outfit he had left in.

"Nice outfit," Blaine said, resisting the urge to tell Kurt how good he looked. Apparently, the fact that he hit on Kurt occasionally actually bothered him.

"Thanks," Kurt said brightly, stroking the edge of his new coat. Why he was wearing a coat in August, Blaine had no idea, but fashion didn't know comfort or pain. "Upstairs, boys," Kurt said, grabbing only two bags himself as Finn grabbed five or six and Blaine grabbed as many as he could carry. They barely made a dent on the first trip.

By the time they were done carrying the bags upstairs (admittedly, this process had probably been much easier when Kurt lived in a basement and gravity wasn't _against_ them), Kurt had a small mountain of bags at the end of his bed, and he was patiently taking clothes out of them and folding them on his bed for some sort of organizational system. Mercedes had taken over the process of removing clothes that were out of fashion from his closet, and they were both laughing as Finn and Blaine delivered the last trip.

"Thanks, Finn, Blaine." The change in his tone between the two names was considerable, but he didn't sound angry with Blaine anymore. Maybe Mercedes had talked some sense into him or something.

"Welcome," Finn said shortly as he headed into his own room.

"I don't suppose you'd like to carry these clothes down?" Mercedes asked, gesturing at the trash bags she was filling with out-of-date clothes for Goodwill.

"Yeah, just give me a second," Blaine said, sitting on the bed to catch his breath and immediately being shooed off by Kurt to a different seat. "So, your dad should be home within half an hour, he called to tell us he would be a little late, and Carole is having dinner at the Puckermans', so-"

"You want me to cook dinner," Kurt guessed with a resigned sigh, putting down an... unidentifiable piece of clothing half-folded.

"Actually, I was going to say dinner will be ready in about half an hour."

"So, more frozen dinners?"

"Broiled Tilapia Parmesan with steamed asparagus," Blaine corrected, and Kurt's eyebrows raised.

"You cook?" he asked, clearly surprised, and Blaine had already forgotten how little Kurt knew about him.

"White boy cooks like a _god_," Mercedes interjected from the closet.

"You're more than welcome to stay, Merce, we have plenty."

"I would love to take you up on that, but it's the little brats' birthday, and my parents are annoyed enough that I left the house today."

"Oh, well, tell Brianna and Nelson I said happy birthday."

"Will do."

"You know her family?" Kurt asked, but he sounded resigned again.

"I've met them once or twice," Blaine said with a shrug as he grabbed the trash bags Mercedes had tied and started carrying them down to the Navigator. Hopefully, the new wardrobe would make Kurt feel a little better, even if it would give Burt another heart attack upon seeing his credit card statement.

* * *

Dinner was a quiet affair, with Kurt going on about all the clothes he had gotten, Finn texting Rachel under the table, Burt trying to look intrigued, and Blaine making a game out of how much he spent on each item.

When they were all done, Blaine started clearing the table. "Well, I'm going to go sort out the mess that is currently my room, and I advise you to do the same, Finn." Kurt wrinkled his nose, and whatever Mercedes had said to Kurt, Blaine loved her for it.

"I'll come with you and bring more stuff down to the Navigator." Blaine and Burt both looked at Finn in surprise, but he didn't seem concerned about being alone with Kurt, and they both headed upstairs.

"I'm just going to wash the dishes," Blaine said since they were reporting their activities, grabbing Burt's plate.

"I'll dry," Burt said firmly, and it didn't really sound like Blaine had a choice. So, ignoring the fact that the Hudson-Hummels had a dishwasher, he started washing the dishes manually, wondering why Burt was standing next to him playing with the dishtowel.

"So, why exactly did my son need an entirely new wardrobe?" Burt asked casually, and Blaine knew Kurt's father was very smart. He could add, and he had probably reached the alarming amount of money Kurt had spent within the last eight hours or so.

"I don't think he actually _needed _a new wardrobe, considering almost everything that was already in his closet was up to date, but I think he'll feel more comfortable with clothes that he bought, rather than clothes that were bought by..."

"Someone that's not quite him," Burt filled in.

"Exactly. I think he's been avoiding the clothes he doesn't remember buying, even though he probably knows everything he remembers is out of style."

"Amnesia is expensive," Burt grumbled, but he didn't say anything more on the topic. "Carole told me what she saw last night," Burt began, and he sounded as awkward as Blaine felt.

"Nothing happened," Blaine insisted, and it was true.

"You know I trust you, kid, and I know we've had this conversation before, once or twice, but Kurt's not in any sort of state to have a relationship-"

"He asked me to kiss him," Blaine blurted out, and he really needed to stop it with the word vomit. That was not something one tells a man's father. _Ever_.

"Doesn't mean you should."

"I didn't," Blaine said again.

"I'm glad, but that doesn't mean I'm not worried about it, kid. I know you love Kurt, and you respect him, but he's my son, and I need to know that you won't do anything to mess up his recovery."

"Mr. Hummel," Blaine began, looking down at the plate he was washing instead of at Kurt's father, "I have no idea what I'm doing here."

"None of us do, kid, but you're probably in the toughest spot. Just... give Kurt some space. As much as I want him to stop making googly-eyes at Finn, and you can't imagine how much I do, I don't think he's back on his rocker enough to be moving forward. Just getting him back to normal is as much as we can ask."

"I was part of his normal."

"Not that he remembers," Burt argued, and he had a point.

"Well, if we're going by what he remembers, liking Finn _was_ part of his normal." Why couldn't he shut up?

"Goddammit, kid, you know what I mean!" Burt snapped, and Blaine had never heard him lose his cool, though he knew the father was capable of it. "I'm not going to tell you to stay away from Kurt, because I don't believe in wasting my breath, but back off him, all right?"

"All right," Blaine replied, thoroughly chastised. Making Kurt's life and state of mind stable was the most important thing at the moment, and should be Blaine's number one priority.

* * *

"The bags are by the closet, but you don't have to carry them down right now," Kurt said, and the flirty tone to his voice was both creepy and familiar. It really was like he was standing in sophomore Kurt's bedroom... which is something sophomore him never would have done.

"I'll carry them down a little later. I wanted to talk to you." God, how was he going to do this? He knew Kurt's crush on him was only making things worse for everyone, but he had broken Kurt's heart once, and he didn't want to do it again.

"Finn, I know what you're going to say," Kurt started before Finn could get anything out, "but you don't have to. I know, logically, that you don't return my feelings."

"Yeah, I'm not gay." When was the last time he had had to say that? "But that's not what I wanted to say."

"Oh?" Kurt asked, and he sounded kind of... hopeful. Finn didn't bother to correct him, because Kurt was going to be hurt enough by the time he was done talking.

"I wanted to tell you a story." It had been nice of Blaine not to tell Kurt this particular story, no matter how annoyed he was with Kurt's crush on Finn. "It was the last half of sophomore year, before Regionals, and Mr. Schuester decided to do a lesson on expressing ourselves, focusing on our clothing... kind of. THere's a long story about TIna being a vampire and stuff."

"And I thought Blaine said the club had changed," Kurt said with a little smile. He still looked pretty hopeful, and Finn remembered him saying, "_nothing is impossible when it comes to love_." That was still the frame of mind he was in. Oh boy.

"Yeah, they have, but they hadn't then." If that made sense. "Anyway, the girls and you did Lady Gaga, and the guys did Kiss. Mom and I had just moved in here, and we were going to be sharing your basement." A little bile was rising in Finn's throat, because this wasn't exactly a moment he was proud of and wanted to share. "You decide to redecorate in order to make me more comfortable." How was he supposed to say this? "I had been under a lot of pressure at school, and Regionals was coming up, and-"

"Finn," Kurt cut him off. "What are you trying to say?"

"When I saw the way you had redecorated the room, which was Moroccan and pink and brothel-ish, I kind of freaked out and called you a fag," Finn blurted out almost unintelligibly. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or terrified when Kurt seemed to understand him.

The shirt in Kurt's hands was one of the graphic tees he used to wear a lot. It depicted graffiti, and was blue, and was something that Finn could actually picture a dude wearing. It was also being torn apart at the seams, Kurt was clenching it so tight.

"Get out," Kurt said softly, and he wasn't looking at Finn.

"Kurt-" Finn tried to start, but he knew he wouldn't get very far. He wasn't exactly expecting a positive reaction.

"Get out of my room," Kurt said, his voice going from soft and heartbroken to icy and angry. "Get out! Now!" Kurt chucked the shirt at him and whipped around. Judging by the hunched set of his shoulders, he was about to start crying.

"Kurt," Finn tried again, placing a hand on his shoulder, but Kurt slapped it away.

"Don't touch me," he said again, voice sheer ice, not turning around to look at Finn. "Get out of my room. Now."

* * *

Kurt had been up in his room organizing for a few hours. Finn had carried all of his bags down in one swoop, and Blaine was sitting with him on the couch, trying to agree on a movie. Finn was all for Top Gun, and Blaine knew he was going to relent eventually.

"Hey boys," Carole said as she walked in the house, home from her dinner with the Puckermans. "Where's Kurt?"

"Upstairs, putting away his new wardrobe," Blaine answered her. "Fine, we can watch Top Gun," he said to Finn, who grinned like a maniac as he hopped up from the couch to put the DVD in.

"Where's Burt then?" Carole sounded concerned, which was odd.

"He went upstairs to get started on the books for the garage about... an hour ago," Blaine replied, looking at the clock then over at Carole. Her face was tight, her eyes a worried mothers'. "What's wrong?"

"Where's the Navigator?" she asked simply, and they all had the same moment of horror.

"Dammit, Kurt," Blaine said as he rolled over the back of the couch and ran upstairs. Kurt's room was a mess, clothes all over the bed and floor and thrown into the closet with no attempt at organization. Kurt's pillows were over by his bathroom, and at the head of his bed was a slightly damp, mascara-streaked, blue graphic tee. "He's not in his room," Blaine called out after checking the bathroom quickly.

"I didn't see him leave," Burt called from the hallway, Carole obviously having alerted him.

"You were probably just too focused, honey," Carole said.

"He's not out here!" Finn yelled from the backyard.

"And the Nav's gone?"

"Yes," Carole replied, and she looked as nervous as Blaine felt.

Where the hell was Kurt?

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter seems choppy, but there were so many little scenes that were important but really couldn't be elongated without fluffing... which is also why this chapter is so short. As for its lateness, I do apologize, but the last week has been super busy. Hopefully I will begin updating in a quicker fashion, starting now.**

**The shirt mentioned is a Marc Jacobs Graffiti T-Shirt which can be found on MarcJacobs dot com.**

**Also, cliffhanger. MWAHAHAHAHA!**

**Reviews are Love.**


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